This weekend commemorates UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s 100 days in office. He has already begun trying to revitalize his new Labour government after a shaky comeback after 14 years in opposition.
Starmer’s personal poll ratings have plummeted in the first few weeks of his administration due to controversy over gifts given to ministers and a reduction in welfare payments for millions of retirees.
In addition, he has been accused of deterring foreign investment by continuously accusing the previous Conservative government of leaving Labour with a disastrous economic legacy and ominously predicting more suffering to come.
“It hasn’t gone well,” said Steven Fielding, a political scientist at the University of Nottingham and the author of multiple books about the Labour Party.
“If this is a start of a march towards (Starmer’s pledge of) national renewal, the first footsteps were very uncertain,” he stated to AFP.
Observers point out that the initial errors were mostly self-inflicted: neglecting to end the “freebies” controversy and misjudging the outrage caused by the removal of winter heating payments for 10 million senior citizens.
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