Keir Starmer’s popularity ratings will bounce back, Angela Rayner insists

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/21/keir-starmer-popularity-ratings-will-bounce-back-angela-rayner-insists

Posted by JayR_97

45 Comments

  1. ImNotSuperMan1996 on

    Yep really popular taking away winter fuel payments for the elderly which he himself said would cause deaths to fund a proxy war with Russia.

  2. FossilisedHypercube on

    /uj His popularity and that of Labour in general is less important, I think, than economic and social stability

    /rj “We’ll regain trust gradually, but not before we vote on the National Service (for the over 65s) Bill and debate legislature for the enforced daily serving of tinned sprouts. These are tough decisions and yes, I understand that I’m lucky to be able to heat my yurt which is made from puppy skins”

  3. Haha wasn’t it a few days ago that Starmer had to say he’s in control?? Why are they saying stuff like this? They sound like they are a government on their last legs, not a newly elected one

  4. Unfortunately the acceptance of clothing and spectacles were a spectacular ‘ Own Goal ‘ for Labour and not what members like myself expected but let’s move on now and learn from it.We know the right wing press will be looking for anything to discredit the government even though the Tories were corrupt with no moral compass.There is a lot to do and let’s get on with it,I say this as a lifelong Labour party member, pensioner and old fogey.Also have a think about the fuel allowance for those of us on the cusp of not poor enough for benefits but not rich enough to not have to worry about it.

  5. rattlee_my_attlee on

    tbh we’ll probs see another cameron situation in 2015,

    growing dissatisfaction with the government, starting early on with austerity measures and student tuition fees,

    but with the help from lib dems being destroyed and snp-lab coalition being likely, he edged thru to a maj from a minority position,

    alot can happen but i feel for many moderate voters unless the tories have turned things around massively or reform somehow make themseleves appealing to the electorate beyond their base, many seats will stay lab, a lot less probably but likely a healthy maj

  6. Constant-League-2507 on

    I won’t be voting Labour again, or Conservative either. This country is completely doomed. Incompetent leadership through and through.

  7. Regardless of the rights or wrongs, the optics of taking money away from pensioners – in the minds of most folk pensioners are old grannies with a one bar electric fire – whilst at the same time having a 6 digit salary and a grace and favour mansion in the centre of London but getting tens of thousands of pounds in clothes, holidays, executive boxes, are horrendous.

    The Tory leadership were vile, and Starmer trumpeted loudly about them accepting favours, helicopter rides and the rest whilst the country starved. Now they’re wiped away, he is starting to appear like an entitled hypocrite.

  8. BluishLookingWaffle on

    “People were so tolerant of the tories being corrupt for so long, I can’t see them being mad about the tories lite being corrupt too”. If Angela Rayner was honest.

  9. Good luck. What’s the plan, tax everything and everything in the first year, continue fiscal drag until the year before election day and then suddenly say they’re the party committed to lowering taxes on working people in efforts to get re-elected? The Tories tries that and it didn’t work.

    I think it’s time we replace both of these parties as they are clearly out of touch with voters. Reform UK is the natural alternative to the Tories, but who do the left have? The Lib Dems would likely be more of the same and the Greens would be a disaster. Time to change the system to PR I think.

  10. Not_A_Rachmaninoff on

    Labour has inherited so much shit and it’s only been 8 weeks. Everyone needs to calm tf down and realise the harsh measures required to revive our country

  11. I voted Labour this year with gritted teeth. Honestly, I voted because the Tories f*cked sh*t up so much I felt obliged.

    Never again. I get the “cant fix it overnight” bullsh*t, but it’s time for both Labour and Tories to crash and burn into irrelevance. Neither group has what it takes to truly address and fix the issues we face.

  12. All depends with the October budget and how they try and fix the NHS as well as matters that the nation actually care about.

  13. Remember how few people actually voted for him in the first place.

    That said, any new government was going to have to come in and make some difficult choices. I always suspected he’d have a dip early on. Then, in theory, you should be able to show your progress as it gets to election time. Not within 12 weeks.

  14. You weren’t very popular in the first place but given the incredible mess that the Tories made of everything and the callous dishonesty they displayed you were the supposed to be the least worst choice.

    Let’s not forget that you received 33% of the vote.

    Still, good to know you are all well dressed for the occasion thanks to your “Office Costs”.

  15. Hilarious how Reddit went from blaming the tories for all their woes to Starmer.

    He’s been in a couple of months and has done a solid job. Popularity has inevitably fallen as he’s being honest about the current state of things and the public don’t want to hear that.

  16. creativename111111 on

    They’ll be ok as long as they sort their shit out since British voters have a severe case of short term memory loss and will have forgotten about this in 6 months (unless the press decides otherwise which they probably will)

  17. When he came in, all boring, down to business, like the civil servant he should be, I honestly was glad, felt like we had someone finally there to do some actual work, but all this gifting stuff has wiped any notion of being for the people/politics has changed away.

    He should quickly stop all gifting, like we see in so many other jobs and industries, he should say that it is all a bit stupid, and he should go back to putting the electorate first.

    Saying he’ll stop accepting clothes is ridiculous. Makes it somehow sound worse.

    Rayner should know all this. Being sent out to do his bidding and defend his popularity, when he doesn’t even like her is weird.

  18. TurbulentBullfrog829 on

    ” Rayner described herself as a “yimby” on a national level”

    Wtf does that even mean? Everyone is a “yimby” on a national level. That’s what nimby means.

    They don’t help themselves do they

  19. JimJonesdrinkkoolaid on

    >*“Rachel wanted Dorneywood, I’m happy for Rachel to be using it. It was never an issue … I’m sure Rachel will let me go and visit Dorneywood if I want to. The idea that we’re going around fighting about mansions or whatever else … ”*

    Politicians are just self serving let’s be honest.

  20. Lol not when you keep acting like the people you replaced! Popular decisions Keep being missed by this government

  21. west_country_wendigo on

    We’ve all become very addicted to politics. It’s a few months into a 5 year government.

    Everyone needs to chill out.

    We did, what, two weeks of news cycle on wealthy retirees no longer getting free holiday money, and another week on one of the most important people in government being paid a vaguely competitive professional salary.

  22. Pretty sure he wasn’t that popular to begin with. He’s always been a Tory with a red tie to me, I only voted Labour because of my pure hatred for the tories.

    He doesn’t represent me whatsoever, there isn’t a candidate who gives a flying fuck about LGBT rights or the rights of those at the bottom trying to claw there way out of the shit.

    He just got lucky that the tories truly fucked up time and time again and there was literary no alternative.

  23. I hate to say it, but this is not the PM the country voted for. Everyone (and I mean everyone that their out it) just wanted rid of the conservatives and Sunak. This is a protest prime minister, so we got exactly what that. He was never capable of being prime minister. We just couldn’t handle more of the conservatives!

  24. Maybe, they need to take a page from the tories and make sure with every cutback or difficult decision that they remind people this is because of tory problems.

    I don’t get how the Tories spent so long cutting funding for everything and yet we are still having to make cuts to stuff to ‘balance the books’.

  25. They will if the government shows signs of competence, of putting the country back and track and dealing with the issues in it.

    They won’t if the past month has been a sign of things to come. The mood of the country is not great. No one is hopeful. And then piling doom, gloom and warnings of “it will get worse before it gets better” is not going to win people over.

  26. Stop telling everyone how everything is shit then.

    His party have done some good stuff – best payrise for NHS staff in years, ended all(?) strikes. Something Tories never did. But it doesnt make much headlines when all you do is tell people virtually everyday how much debt the country is in and how life will be tougher now

  27. FinbarrSaunders69 on

    Didn’t vote, nobody worth voting for in my eyes. However, I did think that while it was inevitable the tories were going to get voted out, I feel like *perhaps* they’d turned a corner and were starting to sort things out, and that people should be careful what they wished for…

    I definitely hope to be proven wrong though.

  28. Potential_Cover1206 on

    She must have been on the cocktails since breakfast. Pissing off pensioners who remember & don’t forget is never a clever move.

  29. Old-Amphibian416 on

    He has only been in power for a few months.

    Preparinging people for austerity round 2
    Cancelling winter fuel payments
    All this talk of tax increases
    The gifts, clothes etc
    The slumlord MP

    It’s just a drip, drip of bad news.

  30. No PM sitting on tax rises will be popular. I think very few people voted for Labour because they wanted a Labour government, they voted Labour to get rid of the tories

  31. Maybe he’ll make Angela Rayner go on television and defend the Israel’s genocide of Palestinians again. That’ll really boost his numbers.

  32. Melodic-Display-6311 on

    The 2024 GE wasn’t about a desire for a Starmer led Labour government, it was about getting the tories out.

    The Tories pissed off the centrist branch of the party so they flocked to Lib Dem, while the right went to Reform or stayed home.

    Starmer was never popular, despite the media’s attempts at making this another Blair 1997 moment.

    Starmer is presiding over a far angrier and less forgiving nation than Blair did in the 00s

  33. It reminds me of the scene in Titanic when Bruce Ismay states “But this ship can’t sink!” while the bow is literally underwater. Saying something doesn’t make it so and I think we all know Starmer is about to become even more hated.

  34. ThewisedomofRGI on

    Starmer has never been popular with the public. Had the Tories not imploded, he would not be PM. He is without charm, or vision. It will all end in tears.