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In less than 100 days in office, the shine of Keir Starmer‘s landslide election win has well and truly worn off.
Recent polls have Labour just one point ahead of the Conservatives who, just three months ago, suffered their worst defeat in parliamentary history. And on a more personal note, Starmer’s approval rating, according to think tank More in Common, has plummeted 45 points since July 5, with the PM now one point below Rishi Sunak.
Starmer, who passed the milestone on Saturday having lost his chief of staff almost a week prior, vowed on entering office to end the era of Conservative corruption and kickbacks and restore public trust – pledges long-since overshadowed by his £100,000 football tickets and other freebies scandal.
But, weighed against his predecessors in power, Starmer’s rocky start, is barely a stumble. Liz Truss lasted just 45 days and her mini-budget sent global markets into meltdown. Boris Johnson did damage of a different sort telling a litany of lies along the way, and Rishi got little right.
Nevertheless, Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera: “It’s easily the worst start to a Government’s time in office in living memory – and it wasn’t as if Labour were that popular anyway.”
That assessment aside, Starmer does appear on track to deliver on, at least some of his many promises to re-build Britain and re-energine the economy. The only question left, is how is he going to pay for it without returning to austerity. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will answer that with her Budget on 30 October.
To mark the PM’s first 100 days, we asked a number of charities and think tanks to give us their report card on Starmer.
Here’s what they said:
Dr Doug Parr – Greenpeace
“Ultimately, Labour needs to invest at scale for national renewal.”
On climate and nature, the Labour Government faced a very easy task and a very tough one: to do better than its predecessor and to do well enough to tackle the sheer scale of the problem. After 100 days, the first target has been smashed but the second is still some way off.
The new Government stormed out of the starting blocks with a raft of strong announcements on climate and energy. Within days, they had lifted David Cameron’s absurd ban on new onshore wind, tabled the Bill to set up publicly-owned Great British Energy, increased funding for renewable energy auctions and unblocked solar projects stuck in Nimby limbo.
There has been less of a sprint to act on the nature crisis, though the introduction of a new bill to crack down on water companies and clean up our rivers was a welcome move.
So we have seen a clean break with the past, but is it enough as a bridge to a better future? Not quite, and there have been a few slip-ups along the way. Deciding to invest a whopping £22 billion in unproven carbon capture technology, especially after warnings from scientists, was a faux pas, as is the continued obsession with building ever-costlier and permanently-delayed nuclear reactors.
That level of investment would have been better deployed to support making the homes of the fuel-poor warmer and help workers and communities dependent on high-carbon industries, including the steelworkers at Port Talbot.
On the global stage, the Government’s attempt to regain the initiative has already shown some promising signs, such as the UK joining a group of countries pushing for a strong Global Plastic Treaty. But there’s also been a surprising inertia on something as straightforward as ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty, a big conservation win.
Ultimately, Labour needs to invest at scale for national renewal. As leading economists have already argued, serious levels of Government spending will be needed to build vital infrastructure, fix tottering public services and help key industries transition to net zero.
The autumn statement offers the Chancellor the perfect opportunity to start funding this national renewal programme. And instead of repeating the mistake of cutting winter fuel payments to pensioners, she should focus on taxing the super-rich and use the money to pay for climate solutions that would benefit millions of people, like cheaper public transport and warmer homes.
Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation
“The worrying signals from the first 100 days are that the Government has doubled down on its pre-election promises not to raise key taxes”
One of the frustrating things about Labour’s first 100 days when it comes to the economy is the timing of the budget. Holding it in late October means that the new Government has now spent months in power without showing its hand on big economic matters like taxes, investment or indeed the very fiscal rules that shape both.
The promising news is that the Government recognises that something must be done to fix crumbling public services, reduce poverty and invest in the green transition. Indeed, Rachel Reeves talked about the need to invest no fewer than 27 times in her speech at the Labour Party Conference – from “homegrown energy” to “our schools, our hospitals, our police, and all our public services”.