Another Future Is Possible for Keir Starmer’s Government

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“I believe another future is possible”, declared Keir Starmer as he launched his campaign to become the next Labour leader back in 2020.

Promising to make “the moral case for socialism”, Starmer pledged to heal the division of the Corbyn years and unite his party behind a clear plan for radical, but deliverable change.

Fast forward to 2025 and that alternative future is still looking a long way off.

Despite making some early and welcome changes – boosting investment in green energy, committing to nationalise the rail network, and increasing workers rights – Starmer has spent most of his first 12 months as Prime Minister engaged in arguments that more closely resemble the political era he was elected to overturn.

Far from making the moral case for investment, after a decade of austerity, the Prime Minister has instead spent his first year in Government making the case for yet more cruel and self-defeating cuts. And far from building the “immigration system based on compassion and dignity” that he promised, he has instead doubled down on the ugly rhetoric and undignified immigration clampdowns of his predecessors.

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The internal division that so defined the series of Conservative governments that preceded him, has also continued, with overly powerful advisers locked in internal warfare almost from day one of his premiership. His election day pledge to lead a “Government of service” – badly needed after a decade of cronyism and outright corruption under the Conservatives – ran immediately into rows about freebies from donors and cash for access. 

Beseiged at home by a hostile press and an increasingly hostile parliamentary party, Starmer has often looked far more comfortable representing the country abroad. Here he has had much more success. Unlike Boris Johnson, who was more interested in cosplaying as “world king” than doing the hard miles of international diplomacy, Starmer has worked doggedly to secure Donald Trump’s support for Ukraine and NATO, while starting to heal the divide between Europe and Britain that opened up after Brexit.

It has not all been positive. His reluctance to condemn Israel’s genocidal ambitions in Gaza, or to cut off UK arms supplies to the country, has made a mockery of his campaign pledge to “put human rights at the heart of foreign policy”, while his closeness to an increasingly authoritarian US president has too often veered into the sycophantic.

Yet his performance abroad has shown glimpses of the Prime Minister Starmer could have been and still could be. Unflashy, but serious, hard-working but at ease, there have been signs that despite all of his troubles, another future for Starmer really is possible.

There are signs that a similar realisation may be dawning on the Prime Minister as well. In recent weeks he has made a series of apologies for his ill-judged anti-migrant “island of strangers” speech. Speaking to his old friend Tom Baldwin at the Observer, Starmer said that he “deeply regrets” the speech and signalled his desire to edge away from the ‘Blue Labour’ strategy of his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, insisting that “If we’re to win that battle [against Nigel Farage] we have to be the progressives fighting against the populists of Reform – yes, Labour has to be a progressive political party”.

Meanwhile with winter fuel and disability benefits cuts both running into a wall of opposition from Labour MPs, there are signs that the Prime Minister is being forced, willingly or not, into shifting course.

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And with growing rumours that McSweeney could be sacked, or sidelined in the coming months, there is an opportunity for Starmer to think again about the kind of Government he really wants to lead, and ultimately the kind of legacy he wants to leave behind.

Not all of Starmer’s problems have been of his own making. The dreadful economic inheritance left by the Conservative party has made it infinitely more difficult for this Labour Government to do the kinds of things the party has historically been expected to do in office. The return of Trump, and broader rise of global far right populists has also added hugely to the challenges faced by Starmer, both at home and abroad.

But with almost four years to go until the likely date of the next general election there is still time for Starmer to turn things around, just as he successfully turned around Labour’s electoral prospects in the run up to 2024. With a fresh team and fresh ideas in Number 10, the Prime Minister could still deliver the alternative future he promised five years ago.

Exactly what that future would look like is still up for grabs. A series of progressive tax rises, used to fund tangible improvements to living standards and public services, could still pull the rug out from under the hardline Thatcherite politics hiding behind Nigel Farage’s populist politics. A bolder Downing Street, worried less about screams of outrage from what is left of Fleet Street, and more worried about what voters who backed his party in 2024 actually want, could still secure the second term required for Starmer’s promised “decade of national renewal”.

With opinion polls still showing a majority of voters inclined to support parties of the left and centre, it is still possible for Starmer to unite the country around exactly the kind of progressive platform he promised all those years ago.

That other future is still possible. Whether or not Starmer will show the courage and determination to actually make it happen, remains largely in his hands.