Politics

John Rentoul: Keir Starmer has blown it – he had a plan to win the election, but none for government

Nobody in Britain had high expectations of this Labour government. That could have been one of its strengths: that people would accept it had taken over at a time when the public finances were in a bad way, and so any small improvement would be a welcome relief, earning generous approval from the voters.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer is in Liverpool for his Labour party's conference. Photo: PA Nobody in Britain had high expectations of this Labour government. That could have been one of its strengths: that people would accept it had taken over at a time when the public finances were in a bad way, and so any small improvement would be a welcome relief, earning generous approval from the voters.

But I am afraid Keir Starmer has blown it. He has taken people’s low expectations and said, in effect, that they were not low enough. It has become an established view – already – that the government has made a bad start, which means that a lot of the coverage of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, which started yesterday, is organised around the question: can he turn things around? Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.