UK leader Keir Starmer completes 100 days in office. It’s been a rocky ride – World

LONDON (AP) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer celebrates 100 days in office Saturday with little cause for celebration.

Starmer’s centre-left Labor Party was re-elected in a landslide on July 4, returning to power after 14 years. But after weeks of stories about feuds, giveaways and fiscal gloom, polls suggest Starmer’s personal approval rating has plummeted, with Labor only marginally more popular than a Conservative Party that was rejected by voters after years of fights and scandals.

“You really couldn’t have imagined a worse start,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “First impressions count, and it will be hard to turn it around.”

Starmer won the election on promises to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, grow Britain’s sluggish economy and restore ailing public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.

His government argues it is off to a strong start: ending long strikes by doctors and rail workers, creating a publicly owned green energy company, scrapping a controversial Tory plan to deport asylum seekers asylum in Rwanda and has introduced bills to strengthen them. rights of workers and tenants.

Starmer has traveled to Washington, the United Nations and European capitals to try to show that “Britain is back” after years of infighting over Brexit. But Britain, like its allies, has struggled to make much of an impact in the spiraling conflicts in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.

The new government has also faced crises at home, including days of far-right-fueled anti-immigrant violence that erupted in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland in the summer. Starmer condemned the rioters as “mindless thugs” and vowed to jail those responsible. So far, more than 800 people have appeared in court and almost 400 have gone to prison.

Starmer’s most intractable problem is Britain’s sluggish economy, hampered by rising public debt and weak growth of just 0.2% in August, according to official figures.

Starmer has warned that things will be “tough in the short term” before they get better. He says public spending will be constrained by a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” in public finances left by the Conservatives.

One of the first acts of the government was to strip millions of pensioners of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter. It was intended to signal a determination to take tough economic decisions, but it generated a strong backlash from workers and sections of the public.

He also sat uncomfortably with the news that Starmer had accepted thousands of pounds (dollars) of designer clothes and glasses from a wealthy Labor donor. Starmer insisted the gifts were within the rules, but after days of negative headlines he agreed to return 6,000 pounds (almost $8,000) of gifts and hospitality, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.

Government officials and advisers have traded blame for the faltering start, focusing on Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray and her reported tensions with Labor campaign strategist Morgan McSweeney.

Amid intense media scrutiny, which produced the revelation that Gray was earning more than the prime minister, she resigned on Sunday, saying stories about her “risked becoming a distraction”. McSweeney replaces her as Starmer’s chief of staff.

Anand Menon, director of the policy think tank UK in a Changing Europe, wrote on his website that the government made “avoidable mistakes” that allowed a “perception of incompetence and dysfunction” to take hold.

The government’s focus is now on October 30, when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will set out her first budget. The government is betting on a combination of public and private investment to stimulate economic growth, but it needs billions for this task. Reeves has ruled out raising income tax, sales tax or corporate tax, but also says there will be no “return to austerity,” a difficult circle to square. He is believed to be considering raising taxes on wealth, such as capital gains or inheritance tax.

The government hopes it can make painful decisions soon and then turn things around by showing a growing economy and improving living standards. And he has time: there is no need for another election until 2029.

Starmer worked from 10 Downing St. on his 100th day in office, and insisted he would not be “derailed”.

“You have these days and weeks where things are stuck, there is no solution,” he told the BBC. “This is in the nature of government.

“It’s been a lot harder than anything I’ve done before, but a lot better.”

Bale said the government can rebuild trust with voters if it shows “not only that it has had a pretty terrible legacy, but that it has a plan to improve the country”.

“What’s been missing in some ways is the vision,” he said. “I don’t think people have that much of an idea what Keir Starmer is about, or indeed the work. And that’s something they need to correct very quickly.”