KEIR Starmer is renowned for pivoting on his policy choices, in fact the Prime Minister has staged so many U-turns it's hard to count them all.
That didn’t mean I didn’t have a go at putting a list together, but where to start — the U-turns he made after taking over the Labour leadership and ditching his 10 pledges?
Or since he moved into Number 10 just under a year ago, surely that would be an easy list to compile?
Well it took me all day, so let's see what the PM has changed his mind on.
1. Welfare reforms
After more than 120 Labour backbenchers staged a rebellion by signing an amendment that would kill off the Government’s plans to make changes to disability payments that would send hundreds of thousands of people in the UK into poverty, Starmer and his Cabinet agreed to several “concessions”.
Those currently claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the health element of Universal Credit (UC) will not be impacted by the changes, but future claimants will be. After being forced to make the changes, Starmer said the climbdown was “common sense” and struck the “right balance”.
2. Winter fuel payment
Just weeks after coming to power, Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to scrap Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners who do not receive pension credits or other means-tested benefits. This was a bid to save £1.5 billion each year.
But, at the start of May, the UK Government changed its position, reinstating the payment — which is worth up to £300 to the vast majority of pensioners who had previously received it — at a cost of £1.25bn.
3. Grooming gangs
In January, Starmer refused to hold a national inquiry into grooming gangs, claiming those who called for one were “jumping on a far-right bandwagon”. Following recommendations in a report by Baroness Louise Casey, the PM announced there would be a full national statutory inquiry, after initially only agreeing to five local inquiries.
“I’ve never said we should not look again at any issue,” Starmer said when asked about the change.
4. National insurance and tax rises
Labour’s 2024 manifesto said that the party would not increase National Insurance, rates of income tax or VAT. Yet, in Reeves’s first budget she announced plans to increase the employers’ rate of National Insurance.
The Government insisted this was not a breach of its manifesto commitments, despite economists arguing that it did.
5. Waspi women
While leader of the opposition, Starmer said it was an “injustice” that a generation of women were impacted by changes to the pension age.
Once in office, the UK Government refused to pay out compensation, with Starmer saying he could not afford the “burden” on taxpayers.
6. Transgender rights
In 2022, Starmer said that “trans women are women”, adding that this was defined by law.
Following the Supreme Court judgment on the definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010, Starmer parroted gender-critical language by stating a woman was an “adult human female”.
Starmer's 10 pledges
Starmer made 10 pledges to Labour party members during the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn and dropped most of them over time.
They were:
7. Two-child benefit cap
When Starmer suspended the whip from seven MPs who voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap at the start of his tenure as PM, you would be remiss for thinking this was a long-standing position.
But in 2020, Starmer called for the cruel cap to be removed, before changing his position just before the 2024 election. He also said the party would abolish Universal Credit and tuition fees under his social justice pledge.
8. Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners and reverse cuts of corporation tax
Reeves said in February 2024 that the party would not raise corporation tax if elected, would cap it at 25% as introduced by the Tories and may cut it to boost "competitiveness".
Labour also pledged not to increase income tax.
9. Put the "Green New Deal" at the heart of his Government's policy
Before coming to power, Labour promised to spend £28bn a year on green investment, before drastically scaling it back. Recently, publicly-owned GB Energy had its funding for clean energy raided, with £2.5bn being given to nuclear power.
10. Putting "human rights at the heart of foreign policy"
A top Westminster committee recently wrote to Cabinet ministers over concerns that supplying F-35 jet components to Israel was a breach of the UK's international human rights obligations.
11. Nationalisation of rail, mail, energy and water
While the Government is working to nationalise rail in parts of England, and set up GB Energy, though there is no confirmation it has any employees yet and private companies still dominate the industry and set prices - Royal Mail and water companies remain privately owned.
12. An immigration system based on "compassion and dignity"
The UK Government's immigration white paper extended automatic settlement from five years to 10, ended international recruitment of care workers and made tests for foreign students applying to UK universities stricter, among other changes.
13. Strengthen worker's rights
Labour rebranded itself as the "party of work" rather than party of workers under Starmer, and watered down its New Deal for Workers.
14. Abolish the House of Lords
This did not happen. Hereditary peers were scrapped, but no radical changes have been made since Labour took over in Westminster.
Elsewhere ...
15. Bankers’ bonuses
When short-term prime minister Liz Truss scrapped the cap on bankers’ bonuses during those hazy 49 days she was in Number 10, Starmer vowed to reinstate it. Right before the election, Reeves announced Labour had no intention of doing that whatsoever.
16. Farmers
Starmer promised a “new relationship” with farmers in a speech in 2023, but then once in power scrapped agricultural property relief. This means farms, who were previously exempt, with assets more than £1 million will be hit with a 20 per cent levy.
17. Non-Doms
Labour were set to abolish the non-dom status. It allows those whose permanent home is outwith the UK to only pay tax on the money they earn here. But at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Reeves said she would “tweak” the transition period to make it more attractive to the super-rich.
It is not surprising Starmer changed position on three policies in the space of a month, it is becoming the defining feature of his leadership of the Labour party.
It gives the impression of a man, and a party, easily swayed by big business and the super-rich, who are happy to put the burden of balancing the public purse on the backs of those who need support the most, rather than those who can afford it.
It paints a picture of a still out-of-touch Westminster led by a party that promised change, but all it can offer is a man who changes position as often as the Tories used to change prime minister.
