From “you can’t win” to “you can’t lose” was the motivation of the new British Prime Minister, Labour’s Keir Starmerto become the 58th ruler in the history of the United Kingdom. After the July 4 election, Labor ousted the worn-out Conservative Party, who had ruled the country for fourteen years with five prime ministers and the worst economic crisis since the Second World War
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This new era of Labour government began just at midday last Friday after Starmer received approval for his mandate from the King Charles III in a private session at Buckingham Palace. He then walked through the iconic black door of the palace for the first time. 10 Downing Street, which will now be his residence and official office.
He is the sixth new Labour prime minister in the country’s history, but his victory is seen more as the result of an election lost by the Conservatives, rather than won by the Labour Party, with its 412 members of Parliament out of 650 possible seats. On the other hand, the Tories (the name used for members of the Conservative party) won only 121 seats, their lowest number in the history of the party. House of Commons since 1832.
Labour’s power was secured with just 34 per cent of the vote on a low turnout of around 60 per cent. Labour’s vote share was less than two per cent higher than in 2019, when the party was reduced to around 200 seats.
“Keir was a political unknown until 2015,” recalls one of his fellow Labour supporters, Paul Donovan, recalling that he first saw him in person during Labour’s darkest days, with the resounding defeat of then-leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2016 by Boris Johnson.
“It’s a blow to Starmer’s wing,” Rory Stewart, an analyst and former member of the British Parliament, told EL TIEMPO, saying that this would explain why Starmer, 61, used such discreet words to refer to his party’s biggest electoral victory in the United Kingdom this century: “stability and modernization”.
Knowing that he will not get the “honeymoon” that every new government member has, he was cautious in restraining himself from making promises that he does not know if he will keep, according to Stewart. He also gave no indication of the strategies he would adopt to recover the finances, boost growth and improve the living conditions of the British, who are suffering the effects of inflation that peaked at 11 percent less than a year ago, although it is now controlled at 2 percent.
This attitude has earned him accusations from analysts and critics that the Labour leader lacks a clear line of government and even preparation, despite the fact that his victory was predicted by all the electoral polls.
His allies prefer to say that Starmer wants to set a new course for the country, moving away from the political drama that characterised his predecessors and focusing on sober and effective leadership. With a background as a human rights lawyer and director of public prosecutions, Starmer has projected an image of integrity and efficiency. His leadership style, marked by caution and meticulous planning, is reflected in the approach with which he has prepared his rise to power.
Who is Keir Starmer?
“A face of thunder” is how the prestigious BBC commentator Laura Kuenssberg described him, referring to Starmer during his time as leader of the opposition, frustrated by witnessing the Conservative plans year after year. This frustration, however, turned into determination.
With his white complexion and athletic build like a weekend footballer, the new prime minister does not give many indications of the kind of ruler he will be. The new tenant of 10 Downing Street is seen by some as an elusive figure, a white-collar lawyer, implacable, ruthless and with a calculating smile. Others describe him as warm, considerate and fair-minded.
What they all agree on is that he is a difficult character to pigeonhole. His own biographer Tom Balwing confirmed this in Keir Starmer: The Biography, a book published this year. A biography that shows a man who shaped his character in a childhood of economic and emotional deprivation, the son of a worker and a nurse, four siblings, sharing a small house on the outskirts of London.
“Keir was unknown in politics until 2015,” recalls one of his fellow Labour supporters, Paul Donovan, recalling that he first saw him in person, in the darkest days of Labour, with the resounding defeat of the then left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2016 against Boris Johnson.
Since becoming leader of the Labour Party in April 2020, Starmer has been busy repositioning his party and winning the trust of the electorate. Along the way, he has carried out a quiet purge, isolating the most radical currents, including Corbyn himself.
Since then, he has been trying to clean up the face of Labour, which was perceived as “leftist”, and give it a style more similar to the neoliberalism of Tony Blair in the 1990s. Perhaps that explains why he used a very simple slogan in his campaign: “change”.
The unanswered question remains: what kind of change? Despite the scale of his victory, Labour’s manifesto promises no radical, unknown moves. “There are no secrets,” commented one senior party figure. Starmer’s approach has been cautious and meticulously planned.
This doubt gives arguments to those who think that the victory of the Labor Party with 412 seats of the 650 in dispute in the House of Commons of Parliamentis not a triumph for Starmer, but the result of the defeat of Rishi Sunak42, from the frayed and divided Conservative Party, which had governed since 2010. His legacy includes leaving the United Kingdom of 69 million people isolated from its one-time allies in the European Union after Brexit and with its finances deteriorating, far behind its partners in the most powerful countries of the Group of Seven, including the United States, Germany and Japan.
Broadly speaking, there are three points in which there is some light in the new mandate: the extension of workers’ rights, ensuring better working conditions and greater security for employees; a more agile and efficient planning system is one of the priorities to facilitate economic development, and the creation of a state energy company seeks to guarantee a secure and affordable energy supply for all citizens.
The challenge will be to contain the cost-of-living crisis, lower bank interest rates to 5.5 percent, but generate the confidence of investors who have had their checkbooks depleted to get the economy moving, which is stagnating at 0.1 percent of gross domestic product, according to data from the British Office for National Statistics.
Other challenges facing the Labour Party in the UK
Starmer will face a Conservative party in disarray, led by the rise of the far right, by an anti-European and anti-immigration populist, Nigel Farage of the Reform movement, which is entering Parliament with 5 seats. This is the same phenomenon we are seeing in Europe, with the elections to the European Parliament, and far-right governments in six countries in the bloc, including Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
The issue of high immigration is another issue that the ruler will have to deal with, who has been said in the past that he will reverse the hostile policy imposed by the Conservatives in recent years with the so-called Rwanda Act of sending asylum seekers who arrive on British territory illegally to the African country. Recently published official data showed that 882 people arrived illegally, the highest daily figure since late 2022.
Starmer will have to navigate the turbulent waters of international politics. On the European front, the new British prime minister has the task of rebuilding bridges with the European Union, which could ease some tensions and facilitate agreements in specific areas.” This strategy of maintaining constructive relations with the European Union will be crucial for the post-Brexit United Kingdom, according to Anand Menon, director of the think tank UK in a Changing Europe.
The other issue where Starmer has been ambiguous is the one related to the conflict in Gaza, which has left more than 25,000 Palestinians dead and a hundred hostages since the Hamas attacks in October last year, and has polarized British public opinion. His stance has generated criticism and demands for a clearer and more critical position towards Israel.
The war in Ukraine will also remain on the British agenda. “It is likely to maintain military and diplomatic support for Ukraine, although the tactics and intensity of the engagement could vary,” Jamie Shea, a former NATO official, suggested to local media.
Despite internal and external pressures to adopt bolder positions, Starmer appears determined to follow a careful strategy. His parliamentary majority gives him the freedom to implement his agenda without giving in to demands for radical changes.
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