KeirStarmer
ThoughtStorms Wiki
22/06/2026 Starmer resigns as PM
My comment
I like TheGuardian. I subscribe for £100 a year.But really! You will never understand what's going on in UK politics or why Starmer is gone today if you just read their self-serving twaddle about him.
The reality is that in Labour's "worst ever catastrophe" in 2019, Jeremy Corbyn was more popular and got more votes, than Keir Starmer in 2024.
Maybe the establishment liked Starmer more, but no-one else did. If you believe the stories about how Starmer was a great opposition leader who restored Labour's popularity but then failed to turn it into concrete governance, you are being gaslit on a cosmic scale.
The only time in the last 20 years that Labour's popularity actually increased with the electorate was under Corbyn's left populism in 2017.
The difference between 2019 and 2024 is almost entirely explained by Brexit and Nigel Farage. In 2019, Boris was the Brexit champion in a country still sold on breaking with the EU. While Starmer was actually hurting Labour's chances by very visibly expounding a Remain / Rejoin agenda. And Farage stood down to give the Tories a free-run as the party of Brexit.
By 2024, Starmer had entirely shut up about Brexit and Rejoining. Yes, the Tories had also lost popularity. Boris's cheeky charisma had worn thin. And the chaotic infighting and floundering that came after him obviously looked bad. But mainly Starmer owes his majority not to his own efforts but to the return of Farage to split the right-wing vote.
Despite the favourable weather, Starmer himself and his empty political program was still unable to increase turnout or votes for Labour.
The Guardian keep talking about the "mystery" of how Starmer could become so popular and then lose it all again in two years. There is no "mystery". Starmer never became popular. Except in the hallucinations of The Guardian and liberal establishment.
This cannot be emphasised enough because this isn't just old history. As Burnham returns to take over the Labour Party, and run the country for the next few years, it's essential that the right lessons are learned.
ALL the excitement about Burnham today stems from the hope that he will push Labour at least somewhat leftwards compared to Starmer's vacuously timid and utterly despised neoliberal technocracy.
What we at least hope from Burnham is more robust, active intervention by government. To push up investment (most of the UK's economic woes are due to low productivity due to under-investment). Take water, railways and other essential infrastructure back under public ownership so all revenues can be focused on providing the services not tapped by shareholders. Devolution of more power (including raising tax revenues) to local mayors and municipalities.
If Burnham can do that, then there is still hope for his government and the UK economy. If, instead, he faffs about, afraid to raise taxes or borrow to invest, then the economy and the country will continue its death-spiral into Farage's warmed-over Thatcherism.
Previously
Director of Public Prosecutions in the UK
Then UK LabourParty leader (prime-minister since 2024), who tacked very much to the right, and trying to expel left-wing. It now looks that this is largely because he was a front for the LabourTogether faction.
I thought originally this was more out of fear than principle, but evidence is mounting that maybe he just is a wannabe Tory.
A more psychoanalytic analysis : https://salvage.zone/the-meaning-of-keir-starmer/
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