THIS week marks one year since Labour’s General Election victory saw them take power at Westminster for the first time in 14 years.
Keir Starmer’s party won a huge majority – 411 out of the 650 seats in the Commons – but this was deemed a shallow victory as they managed just 33.7% of the vote.
Since then, their fortunes have collapsed, according to polling expert Professor John Curtice, more rapidly than any other UK government in history.
An Ipsos poll published to mark the one-year anniversary of Labour entering power found that just 25% of UK voters expect Starmer to win a second term in Downing Street.
The most recent polling from YouGov, Find Out Now, More in Common, Opinium, Techne, and BMG Research have all projected that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are set to beat Labour at the next Westminster election.
On the streets of Glasgow one year on from Labour’s victory, the prevailing feeling among people The National spoke to was one of disappointment.
Numerous people said they had voted Labour in the hope of change, only to be let down by the reality.
“They are literally just acting like Tories,” one person said. “They’re doing the same sh**, they’re cutting benefits, they are acting horrifically towards disabled people, elderly people, and poor people – the exact demographics who had already been treated horrifically.”
Two policy decisions which have marred the Labour Government’s first year in office came up time and time again: the cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment, and the cuts to disability benefits.
Of course, Labour have since U-turned on those policies, withdrawing the cuts to disability from their welfare reforms entirely at the last minute, and reinstating Winter Fuel Payments for pension-age people with an annual income below £35,000.
However, Starmer’s Government have only closed the barn doors long after the horse bolted. The damage – caused by their decision to look to the elderly and the disabled to make “savings” – has been done.
“They can cut welfare, but they’ve got billions for the f***ing arms industry,” one Glasgow local said. “It’s f***ing atrocious.”
One lady did say: “I don’t think there’s any government will get us out of the mess we’re in. I don’t care who it is … The previous have left too much mess. They’re playing catch-up constant.”
That was as close as anyone came to expressing even an understanding as to why Labour’s first year in Government has not been what many may have hoped.
Unless Starmer can inspire a lot more than that, his odds of holding on to power in four years’ time seem vanishingly slim.
