A year has passed since the overwhelming victory of the Labor Party in the general elections of the United Kingdombut very few anticipated that the popularity of the new government It would plumnate In such a short time. On July 4, 2024, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmerwas presented as the promoter of a new way of doing politics after 14 years of conservative governments, a plan that had as its main objective to improve the lives of working classes and boost economic growth. The difficulties in showing tangible results a year later, added to the turns in their speech and in their policies have fed, however, a increasingly negative image of the Executive and the Prime Minister, to the point of questioning his continuity in Downing Street.
Experts attribute the sinking of the Labor Government to several factors, among which the Economic policy controversy promoted by the Minister of Finance, Rachel Reeves. The delicate situation of public accounts, aggravated by the detection of a hole of 22,000 million pounds allegedly inherited from the conservatives, forced the new executive to make drastic decisions shortly after reaching power, including important public spending cuts and tax increases to companies. Reeves’ decision not to increase public debt and comply with some strict fiscal norms They have further limited the executive’s maneuvering margin.
Public spending clippings
“The most significant political decision of the Labor Government has been the promise of no Increase taxes to the working classes, including income tax, social security and VAT contributions, which suppose Much of the income of the State, “says the political scientist Karl PikeQueen’s Mary University of London. This promise has tied to Reeves and has forced it to focus on the reduction of public spending with measures that have caused the rejection of an important part of the deputies of their own party – and of their voters -, including the end of the Aid for the payment of heating In winter for pensioners or social cuts For the people of work age.
The government indicates that these cuts are necessary to reinforce the National Health Service (NHS) and public education and insists that the collection of investments in the energy, technological and infrastructure sector will accelerate economic growth and for create jobs. But the results of the reinforcement of public services and the improvement of the living conditions of working families will only begin to be noticed in the long term, while the controversial decisions of the government do have an immediate negative impact on their popularity. “Understandably, people have a limited patience“, says Pike.
Right turn
The executive has also been harmed by a increasing turn to the right In matters such as immigration. Starmer has tried to harden his speech to avoid a leak of votes to the populist right -wing party Reform UKespecially in the most depressed areas of the center and northern England, but the lack of tangible results in this matter – the number of irregular arrivals to the country is reaching record figures this year – has caused an opposite effect. According to a survey recently published by the Centro Demotecopic 271 deputies In the House of Commons in front of the 178 Labor seats (less than half of those obtained a year ago).
This fall is not only due to Abandonment of Labor voters more conservative, but also of voters closer to the left. Although the Labor Government has been unable to reduce the irregular arrival of immigrants and has failed to implement a large part of the social cuts initially raised, the discursive turn to the right has penalized him among his most progressive voters, who one year after the elections are more inclined by formations such as the Verdes O off Liberal Democrats. “There is a conflict between, on the one hand, the desire of the Labor Party to recover the voters who have passed to reform uk and, on the other, the impression they are giving to the people with more progressive visions that they have moved too much to the right,” says the political scientist Bale team.
Low popularity
Starmer rectifications in some of the measures implemented by their government have contributed to weaken your image Among the voters and to increase the belief that it lacks the leadership and the necessary determination to exercise as prime minister. A 69% of the British has a unavailable opinion Of him, a figure that was 47% when he came to power, while two out of three consider that he is not doing a good job. Even so, the chances of leaving office and gives the witness to another member of his party are still remote due to the lack of candidate that is able to generate consensus in the Labor ranks. His only hope, for now, is that the decisions taken in the last year begin to bear fruit soon.
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