3 ms·

He wins or draws on every measure of unpopularity, other than YouGov net satisfaction where Liz Truss still beats him.

geremiiah 9mo ago
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/keir-starmer-britain-unpopular-prime-minister-reform https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/keir-s... https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/uk/keir-starmer-labour-party-conference-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/uk/keir-starmer-labour-pa... I've come across various sources that lean center-left, note, CENTER-left, saying this. I think there might be something to it.
iso1631 9mo ago
It's a problem with pretty much anyone. Things are bad from a fundamental structural failings for decades, elect new person, don't see immediate turn-around, they're massively unpopular. The only way out of this is if you successfully blame $marginalised_group for the peoples problems. Or spend decades undoing the damage, but nobody ever gets decades in power.
- pjc50 9mo ago
  Some of it is deliberately attempting to appeal to Reform voters, in ways which have infuriated Labour supporters while not winning any Reform support.
- throwaway85825 9mo ago
  It's because he was elected with a historically low % of the vote. Few wanted him at the election, few want him now.
  - 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
    Most don't want any of the options presented to them. Almost all the parties don't really serve the electorate, so a large number of people are abstaining. I appreciate this in an anecdotal but I've spoken to quite a few people I know in my family, that saw it as their civil duty to vote and they told all told me some variation of "there is nobody worth voting for", "I don't think it matters who I vote for".
    - throwaway85825 9mo ago
      The UK is FPTP. Reform split the previously unified conservative vote so labour won with a historically low %.
      - erichocean 9mo ago
        Total Reform + Conservative vote was at historical lows as a percentage of the electorate.
        RansomStark 9mo ago
        That might be true, but the votes (not seats, first past the post, almost guarantees people aren't represented): Labour: 9.7M Conservatives 6.8M Reform: 4.1M Liberal Democrats 3.5M The point clearly stands that had Reform not been a thing, 2024 would have been a conservative landslide. What we got was a Labour landslide, what we should have got was some coalition.
        pmyteh 9mo ago
        Yes, though I'd be careful about assuming that votes are Conservatives <-> Reform on a left-right median voter model. The other aspect that Reform has (and will have at least until it forms a government) is anti-system/populist credentials. Labour had a little of that last time (they are a deeply establishment party, especially under current leadership, but they were coming off a period as very public opposition to the government and the current state of things) but will have very little next time. It's certainly not a given that all the 2024 Reform vote would have gone to the Conservatives: a good chunk of it would have likely been disgusted abstention, another chunk to other anti-system parties (mostly of the right fringe, I suspect, but not excluding the Greens despite wild ideological differences), and likely a further (if smaller) chunk to other parties which were simply not the Conservatives (including Labour and the Lib Dems). Edit: the best analysis on this is likely to be in the latest volume of the long-standing The British General Election of XXXX series, which has just been published online[0]. I haven't had time to look at it yet, though. [0]: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95952-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95952-3

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/keir-starmer-britain-unpopular-prime-minister-reform https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/keir-s... https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/uk/keir-starmer-labour-party-conference-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/uk/keir-starmer-labour-pa... I've come across various sources that lean center-left, note, CENTER-left, saying this. I think there might be something to it.

iso1631 9mo ago

It's a problem with pretty much anyone. Things are bad from a fundamental structural failings for decades, elect new person, don't see immediate turn-around, they're massively unpopular. The only way out of this is if you successfully blame $marginalised_group for the peoples problems. Or spend decades undoing the damage, but nobody ever gets decades in power.

pjc50 9mo ago
Some of it is deliberately attempting to appeal to Reform voters, in ways which have infuriated Labour supporters while not winning any Reform support.
throwaway85825 9mo ago
It's because he was elected with a historically low % of the vote. Few wanted him at the election, few want him now.
- 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
  Most don't want any of the options presented to them. Almost all the parties don't really serve the electorate, so a large number of people are abstaining. I appreciate this in an anecdotal but I've spoken to quite a few people I know in my family, that saw it as their civil duty to vote and they told all told me some variation of "there is nobody worth voting for", "I don't think it matters who I vote for".
  - throwaway85825 9mo ago
    The UK is FPTP. Reform split the previously unified conservative vote so labour won with a historically low %.
    - erichocean 9mo ago
      Total Reform + Conservative vote was at historical lows as a percentage of the electorate.
      - RansomStark 9mo ago
        That might be true, but the votes (not seats, first past the post, almost guarantees people aren't represented): Labour: 9.7M Conservatives 6.8M Reform: 4.1M Liberal Democrats 3.5M The point clearly stands that had Reform not been a thing, 2024 would have been a conservative landslide. What we got was a Labour landslide, what we should have got was some coalition.
        pmyteh 9mo ago
        Yes, though I'd be careful about assuming that votes are Conservatives <-> Reform on a left-right median voter model. The other aspect that Reform has (and will have at least until it forms a government) is anti-system/populist credentials. Labour had a little of that last time (they are a deeply establishment party, especially under current leadership, but they were coming off a period as very public opposition to the government and the current state of things) but will have very little next time. It's certainly not a given that all the 2024 Reform vote would have gone to the Conservatives: a good chunk of it would have likely been disgusted abstention, another chunk to other anti-system parties (mostly of the right fringe, I suspect, but not excluding the Greens despite wild ideological differences), and likely a further (if smaller) chunk to other parties which were simply not the Conservatives (including Labour and the Lib Dems). Edit: the best analysis on this is likely to be in the latest volume of the long-standing The British General Election of XXXX series, which has just been published online[0]. I haven't had time to look at it yet, though. [0]: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95952-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95952-3