Quote · The Rest Is Politics
546. Keir Starmer Resigns: What Happens Next?
Where this was said
Starmer's Record: Achievements That Didn't Add Up to a Story
At 11:55 · chapter starts 11:40
Campbell reads from a viral social media post cataloguing the Starmer government's record: ending doctor strikes, railway renationalisation, the Employment Rights Bill, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, increasing the National Living Wage, the Renters' Rights Bill, a national landlord database, lifting restrictions on onshore wind, increased NHS and school funding, and a downward trend in migration. It is, by any measure, a substantial list. But Stewart plays devil's advocate: from a growth-focused, business-friendly perspective, most of these are either new regulations or spending increases — not a supply-side growth story. The big message was always growth, Campbell concedes, but neither he nor anyone else could ever quite articulate what the key components of that growth strategy actually were. The winter fuel payment saga crystallises the problem: a bold decision to cut an expensive universal benefit, followed by a U-turn that produced neither fiscal credibility nor political goodwill.
Giorgia Meloni has been in power longer than any single British Prime Minister since David Cameron. Andy Burnham will be the seventh PM in the decade since Brexit — a rate of turnover that makes Italy look like a model of stability.
Despite campaigning primarily on growth, the Starmer government never articulated a coherent growth strategy, with Campbell admitting he always struggled to identify its key components.
The Starmer government had a remarkable record — rail renationalisation, Employment Rights Bill, NHS investment, falling migration. But none of it told a story. The growth message was there in theory; no one could ever quite say what it actually meant in practice.
