Everyone Hates Sir Keir— Including England's Kyrsten Sinema, Who Just Quit Labour
I was happy to see the Conservatives get their heads handed to them on July 4. They went from 344 seats in Commons to 121 seats. That’s what they deserved. On the other hand, Labour’s leadership— New Labour’s Keir Starmer— was never better than putrid and it was just a matter of time before Britons got sick of him. On Friday, I noticed that had already happened. Last April Matthew Weaver reported that “The first anniversary of Keir Starmer taking the reins of the Labour party comes at a very awkward moment considering his standing in the polls. His approval ratings have tanked from record highs to his first negative ratings in the last few weeks. Last June, Ipsos Mori found Starmer enjoyed a rating of +31%, the joint highest for any leader of opposition since the polling company began tracking opposition leaders in the 1970s. Starmer’s standing slipped to a still respectable score of +15% in October. But by March, only 33% were satisfied with the job Starmer was doing, compared with 42% who were dissatisfied, giving him a net score of -9%. Britain Elects also put Starmer in negative territory for the first time in March.”
Now he’s prime minister and it’s only gotten worse for him, much worse. “Keir Starmer has suffered a precipitous fall in his personal ratings since winning the election, according to a new poll for The Observer that comes before his first Labour conference as prime minister. The latest Opinium poll reveals that Starmer’s approval rating has plunged below that of the Tory leader Rishi Sunak, suffering a huge 45-point drop since July. While 24% of voters approve of the job he is doing, 50% disapprove, giving him a net rating of -26%. Sunak’s net rating is one point better… Almost half of the public (45%) now have a more negative view of Starmer and Labour since they came into office.”
It can only go up from here? Oh no. Starmer’s approval is about to take a big hit. Unless you’re British, you probably never heard of Rosie Duffield, until Saturday the Labour Member of Parliament from Canterbury. As of yesterday, she’s the independent Member of Parliament from Canterbury. She’s been kvetching about Labour’s relationship with women in Parliament for a long time and suggesting she might quit Labour. Saturday she did— and in the nastiest way possible, “blaming Sir Kier Starmer’s ‘cruel and unnecessary’ policies and the freebies row that is engulfing him and his party. Duffield, 53, has become the fastest MP to jump ship after a general election in modern political history. She is writing to the prime minister today informing him of her decision to resign the whip ‘with immediate effect.’ In her excoriating resignation letter, Duffield condemned Starmer for accepting gifts worth more than £100,000, including clothing, glasses and accommodation paid for by Lord Alli, the Labour peer. ‘The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,’ she wrote. ‘I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.’”
Turning on his decision to retain the two-child benefit cap and axe the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners, Duffield said: “Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of these people can grasp— this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister.”
She added: “Forcing a vote [on the winter fuel payment] to make many older people iller and colder while you and your favourite colleagues enjoy free family trips to events most people would have to save hard for— why are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment?”
It emerged on Friday that Starmer received a further £16,000 of clothing donations from Alli. The donations, comprising £10,000 in October 2023 and £6,000 in February 2024, bring the total amount in gifted clothes to £32,000.
… However, it is the internal criticism which will concern Starmer most. Duffield wrote to him: “As prime minister, your managerial style and technocratic approach, and lack of basic politics and political instincts, have come crashing down on us as a party after we worked so hard, promised so much, and waited a long 14 years to be mandated by the British public to return to power.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous. I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.
“How dare you take our longed-for victory, the electorate’s sacred and precious trust, and throw it back in their individual faces and the faces of dedicated and hardworking Labour MPs?”
