How much trouble is Labour in - and is the PM the right man for the job?

7 days ago Share Save Laura Kuenssberg Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg Share Save

BBC

Sir Keir Starmer achieved what many sage minds in Westminster believed was impossible. Labour smashed itself to bits in 2019. But Sir Keir put the party back together and swept back to power with an epic majority five years later. Yet, turn on the radio or glance at the headlines and Labour appears to be flirting with the unthinkable – giving him his P45. In the last few days I've spoken to 30 people across government and the party - ministers, MPs, advisers - to try to work out, as the prime minister makes his way to Labour's annual party conference in Liverpool, how much trouble is he really in? "How many more data points do you need to see that he is just not very good at being prime minister?" Unforgiving as that sounds, the Whitehall figure who posed that question is far from the only person who has seen Starmer's government up close to conclude that fundamentally, the prime minister is just not suited to many aspects of the job. For months polling has suggested the public feels the same. Sir Keir is an intelligent, incredibly diligent, serious-minded politician who has achieved extraordinary things. But time and again the same problems are raised, summed up brutally by another senior figure: "His judgement on people has proven to be flawed, see endless staffing resets." "His judgement on policy is flawed, hence U-turns, and he can't communicate, and has been unpopular in the public's eyes for a long time." Others point to a slow pace of decision making in Downing Street, suggesting the prime minister thinks "too like a chairman, not a chief executive," says another insider. And "he only gets to the right answer having exhausted all the other options," rather than moving fast using a gut political instinct.