Keir Starmer hasn’t had much of a summer honeymoon
There was no summer honeymoon for Keir Starmer.
Britain’s new prime minister, elected in a landslide less than two months ago, had to cancel a planned vacation after anti-immigrant unrest erupted across the country. He has spent his first weeks in office dealing with the aftermath, and issuing stark warnings about the state of the nation and the economy.
As lawmakers returned to Parliament on Monday after a shortened summer break, Starmer’s left-of-center Labour Party government was preparing for a budget statement next month that’s likely to include tax rises or public spending cuts — or both.
The mood music is in stark contrast to the campaign song used by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the last Labour leader to win an election: “Things Can Only Get Better.”
“Frankly, things will get worse before they get better,” Starmer told voters in a televised speech last week.
Starmer is seeking to hammer home the message that the right-leaning Conservative Party, booted out by voters in the July 4 election, presided over “14 years of rot” that’s left Britain weakened economically, structurally and even morally.
During the election campaign, Starmer vowed to get the country’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.
Since winning power he’s said the situation is “worse than we ever imagined,” with an unexpected 22 billion pound ($29 billion) hole in the public finances. Labour has decided not to increase taxes on “working people,” but it has to find money somewhere.
