By Editor James Tapsfield
Keir Starmer has shrugged off his disastrous first year in No10 telling panicking MPs the ‘toughest’ part is over.
The PM pleaded for his party to stick together and focus on ‘fantastic’ achievements in a BBC interview to mark the anniversary of his July 4 election landslide.
But Sir Keir also acknowledged an array of blunders, saying caving into Labour rebels on welfare was a ‘tough day’ and he regretted a speech warning uncontrolled immigration could turn Britain into an ‘island of strangers’.
Speaking on the Political Thinking podcast with Nick Robinson, the premier tried to make a virtue out of U-turns on issues such as the national inquiry into grooming gangs, arguing it was ‘common sense’ to ‘look again’ when doubts were raised.
And he bizarrely branded himself a ‘hard-enough bast***’ when asked whether he had the determination to revive Labour’s fortunes.
Pollsters and political historians have suggested Sir Keir has endured the worst start of any PM on record.
Since racking up one of the biggest Commons majorities ever, the PM has seen his personal ratings nose-dive and Reform leapfrog Labour in voting intention.
Polling guru Sir John Curtice has warned that Sir Keir was ‘never especially popular’ and the public ‘still don’t know what he stands for’.
This week has been especially stormy, with the massive Labour rebellion on benefits reforms and chaos over Rachel Reeves breaking down in tears during PMQs.
In his interview, Sir Keir insisted the government had ‘done some fantastic things’ and ‘driven through so much change’.
He said that included bringing down waiting lists in the NHS, as well as ‘loads of improvements in schools and stuff that we can do for children’.
Sir Keir went on: ‘Whether that’s rolling out school uniform projects, whether it’s school meals, breakfast clubs, you name it – and also [bringing in] a huge amount of investment into the country.
‘And of course we’ve been busy getting three trade deals.’
Sir Keir said he did not ‘pretend’ that the Labour revolt this week forcing him to neuter his benefit curbs was not a ‘tough day’.
‘I take responsibility,’ he said. ‘we didn’t get the process right’.
But he tried to make a virtue of his ‘Sir U-turn’ reputation, suggesting it meant he was listening.
‘In the world that isn’t politics, it is commonplace for people to look again at a situation and judge it by the circumstances as they now are and make a decision accordingly,’ he said of the changes.
‘And that is common sense, it’s pragmatic, and it’s a reflection of who I am.
‘It was important that we took our party with us, that we got it right.
‘And Labour politicians come into public life because they care deeply about these issues.’
He said: ‘I’m not one of these ideological thinkers, where ideology dictates what I do. I’m a pragmatist. You can badge these things as U-turns – it’s common sense to me,’ he said.
‘If someone says to me, ‘here’s some more information and I really think it’s the right thing to do’, I’m the kind of person that says, ‘well in which case, let’s do it’.’
In a message to Labour MPs, Sir Keir said the government needed to ’emphasise the many good things we have done’.
‘We’re only just starting. This in a sense is the toughest year, so we’re only just beginning,’ he said.
It was put to Sir Keir that a friend he plays football with had described him as a ‘hard bast***’, but he appeared to have ‘lost the dressing room’.
‘Absolutely not,’ he said. ‘The Labour dressing room, the PLP, is proud as hell of what we’ve done, and their frustration – my frustration – is that sometimes the other stuff, welfare would be an example, can obscure us being able to get that out there.’
He added: ‘I’m a hard-enough bastard to find out who it was who said that, so that I can have a discussion with him.’
Sir Keir said he was ready to turn things round, saying ‘I hate losing in football, I hate losing in politics’.
‘Every challenge that’s been put in front of me I’ve risen to, met it, and we’re going to continue in the same vein,’ he insisted.