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Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that his government lacks a coherent narrative and leaves the door open Reform UK, how he faces emergency calls to fix his failing communications operation.
The the prime minister was accused of ruling as a technocrat, relying on the belief that if the standard of living improve voters will stick with him in the next general election.
But the prime minister’s critics inside and outside WorkHis ranks warned him that the party was needed not only delivers, but is seen to deliver.
And while Sir Keir suffered the biggest post-election drop in popularity of any modern British prime minister, Nigel FaragePopulist reform in Russia is surging in the polls, opening up a three-way split at the top of British politics.
A poll at the weekend suggested Sir Keir could lose his majority and almost 200 seats he won in July’s victory – including 67 for Reform.
Such a result would see seven ministers lose their posts, including Wes Streeting, the health secretary, while those who would lose to Reform would be Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
In addition to its success in the polls, Reform has now overtaken the Conservative Party as the second largest political party in Britain by membership, with more than 140,000 members.
After a war of words with Kemi Badenoch over the claim, Mr. Farage opened Reform’s books to confirm this has outgrown the Tories, claiming he is now “the real opposition” to Labour.
said Britain’s leading guru Professor Sir John Curtice The Independent Reforms are “very good at articulating that feeling of dissatisfaction, lack of direction, lack of progress and distrust” in politics.
And he warned that Sir Keir “doesn’t do stories, he doesn’t do narrative”. “He’s a technocrat, he’s not really a politician, he believes that if Labor delivers, the voters will applaud them,” added Sir John.
And he said: “It avoids the basic point that you have to convince the voters that you have delivered, rather than just delivering.”
Sir John said Sir Keir had no vision of what he was trying to do, other than the “we’ll clean up the s**t we’ve got left” argument.
And he warned that Reform’s recent U-turn, calling for the nationalization of Thames Water, as it goes beyond immigration and culture war issues to tap into voters’ economic discontent, could see him take away even more votes from traditional Labor voters.
Sir John’s warning came as a senior Labor MP said The Independent Sir Keir focused too much on “making the tough decisions”.
So far in government, Labor has increased National Insurance, introduced a hugely unpopular tax on farmers and family businesses, scrapped winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, kept the two-child benefit cap and denied compensation payments to Waspi women.
But the MP said Sir Keir must explain how taking tough decisions now will directly benefit the public and not be “shy about taxing the rich”.
“It’s death for us, there’s no story, there’s no coherent story,” he warned. The MP also pointed to the turn of the Reform, saying “Farage and Richard Tice, they are now talking about vulture capitalism, and we are left to hold the baby”.
They said: “Reform and the alt-right, they have a story and it is being developed so that they can take the Labor seats, using the systemic failures of the last 60 years.
“Their story is basically ‘too much immigration, we need to stop the green shit, we need to stop the woke s***, then we can make our country better again’.
“And they point to political elites, vulture capitalists and international finance.”
He added: “Labour is busy cozying up to Blackrock one day and kicking Waspi women the next, there just doesn’t seem to be any kind of narrative that people can follow or make sense of.”
Said one of Sir Keir’s ministers The Independent Labor has done a lot of good work since the general election, including the biggest overhaul of workers’ rights in a generation. But the figure said “we’re really s*** at communication”.
The minister said: “There is doom, where is the joy? Why do we do things? We’re really bad at storytelling, which is something right, Donald Trump, etc., and they’re all really good. And these are the lessons we must learn.
“That’s a New Year’s resolution I would make to entertain, communicate better and learn about that storytelling.”
Pollster Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common, also said there was “not enough of a good story”, adding that voters in focus groups saw Labor as “disgusting with pensioners, farmers and small businesses”.
He said The Independent it is unclear what Sir Keir is trying to achieve and he seems to be just making “pretty bad decisions about groups that the public like”.
“We know people elected Labor because they were sick of the Tories and they wanted to fix the country, and yet there wasn’t enough of what that fixing looked like,” Mr Tryl said.
He said the prime minister’s “almost obsessive” talk about “tough decisions” is hurting the government because “that’s all the public hears.”
“Toughness is not a virtue … you almost think the job is unpopular,” he said.
Mr Tryl added: “You can be unpopular and make unpopular decisions but you have to bring it together… saying it’s so we can see the GP, fix the loopholes… which they kind of said but it’s not coherent and they haven’t grasped the narrative yet.”
Labor has been contacted for comment.