What is Keir Starmer remembered for as Prime Minister of Great Britain? Analysis

Keir Starmer left the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain just over two years after the Labor Party won the election. A number of mistakes made during his reign led to his short-term resignation. He tried to cut budget spending at the expense of pensioners and the disabled, failed to achieve economic growth through new taxes, and was defeated in the municipal elections. What I remember about Starmer's short reign is in the Izvestia article.

Successful solutions

• Starmer's main achievement as prime Minister was to improve the work of the National Health Service (NHS), which is why many Britons evaluate the effectiveness of the government. The increase in taxes and government spending has helped to unload the system and reduce waiting lists for routine treatment. Since July 2024, when Starmer took office, the number of waiting patients has decreased by 515,000 to the lowest level in the last 3.5 years. However, there are still about 7 million people in queues, or almost 10% of the country's population.

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Another achievement was the reform of labor legislation. First of all, the Starmer Labor government banned zero-hours contracts, in which employees were not guaranteed minimum working hours, because of which they could not know what their earnings would be and how much they would work. Employers were also prohibited from contacting employees outside of business hours. Employees were given the opportunity to take sick leave, child care, and for good reason from the very first day after going to work. At the same time, business representatives accused Starmer that his initiatives lead to higher costs, and voters were unhappy that he did not give employees the right to challenge dismissal from the first day of work.

• In foreign policy, the most positive direction has been the reset of relations with the European Union, which were damaged by the long process of withdrawal from it during the conservative era. Starmer organized the first post-Brexit summit with the EU, which marked a return to cooperation in certain areas. At the same time, the prime minister persistently denied the possibility of any deep integration with the European Union and a return to its customs union. The second UK-EU summit in 2026 had to be postponed, as Starmer resigned two days before the scheduled date.

Failed decisions

• Starmer's first failure, from which he began to lose popularity, was the cancellation of heating payments for pensioners. Since 1997, UK households have received between £200 and £300 each winter if they had at least one person over the age of 66 living in them. The payment was unconditional and was due to 11.4 million pensioners. As part of the cost reduction, Starmer proposed limiting compensation and paying it only to low-income people. According to the original plans, 10 million people were deprived of payments, while the budget would have received only £1.4 billion with a deficit of 22 billion. Starmer was accused of preferring petty savings to the elderly, and he was criticized for this not only by opponents, but also by party members. As a result, the government partially relaxed the conditions for receiving payments, but did not return them to their original form.

• An attempt to reduce the cost of disability benefits followed a similar scenario. Plans to save £5 billion by freezing payments and tightening the criteria by which they are appointed have again caused a political scandal, as the unprotected segments of the population have once again been targeted by the Starmer government. He had to make concessions again and refuse most of the offers. Payments to people with disabilities were retained in the same amount, but for new applicants they still became lower.

• After winning the 2024 election, Starmer announced tax increases to cover the budget deficit left by the Conservative Party's rule. The government promised that the new arrivals would help overcome the stagnation that lasted after Brexit and launch economic growth. It predicted that by the end of 2024, GDP would grow by 1.1%, and by 2% next year. However, the final growth was only 1% and 1.3%, respectively. This has led to accusations of failure to solve economic problems. In addition, critics have pointed out that it is impossible to collect more taxes from a slowing economy. This meant that they would soon need to be promoted again, so the Starmer government backed itself into a corner.

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Starmer's position was also undermined by the scandal involving Labor politician Peter Mandelson, who had close ties to disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein. From the materials on his case, which were published in 2026, it turned out that Mandelson, while working in the British government, shared confidential information with Epstein. When Starmer appointed Mandelson to the post of British ambassador to the United States in 2024, an independent security review service recommended rejecting his candidacy and not giving access to classified information, but the government ignored this. Starmer was caught in a lie, as he had previously claimed that Mandelson had passed all the checks for appointment to a high post. It was after this incident that for the first time there was a call among Labor MPs to dismiss the Prime Minister.

• Another blow for Starmer was the failure in the 2026 municipal elections. The Labor Party lost control in 38 local councils and lost almost one and a half thousand representatives. They lost, among other things, in the Northern English regions, where the party's position is always quite strong. At the same time, Starmer's party lost not so much to traditional Conservative rivals, but to the rather radical right-wing UK Reform and the left-wing Greens. The defeat in the local elections did not have much practical significance, but it began to be perceived as a harbinger of future failure in the 2029 general elections. After that, there were even more active voices in the Labour Party for the removal of Starmer and the transfer of leadership, which was eventually picked up by the former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.