Finally, a date has been set – 29 January 2025 – for the government to debate the issues raised by the now-infamous ‘Call a General Election’ petition. With nearly three million signatories, many of whom appear to agree more with the statement ‘I believe the current Labour government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead-up to the last election’ than with any hope of an imminent poll, the petition has highlighted the growing disillusionment with Keir Starmer’s leadership. But how did things spiral to this point in less than five months? Will Starmer’s anticipated ‘reset’ this Thursday address the depth of voter frustration?
It’s vital to look back at Starmer’s grand promises and the reality of what Labour has delivered since he took charge. In 2021, Starmer lauded small businesses as ‘the next generation of wealth creators’ and promised a Labour Britain where businesses could have ‘certainty to invest.’ Yet now, small businesses are reeling under a triple assault: increased National Insurance contributions, a higher minimum wage, and greatly expanded employee rights. Leading retailers like Tesco and M&S have warned that job losses are inevitable, with Sainsbury’s projecting an additional £140 million in National Insurance costs. Meanwhile, recruiters are predicting that tens of thousands of jobs could be moved abroad, as businesses struggle to bear the escalating costs.
The hospitality sector, already burdened with new regulations, faces an existential crisis. The Night Time Industries Association has warned that 40% of bars and clubs could shut within six months. This comes on top of Starmer’s promise to introduce ‘tough new protections for renters’ and ensure homes are ‘safe for people to live in,’ a promise now contradicted by predicted rent increases of up to £200 per month, as landlords seek to offload properties due to new legislation.
Starmer’s empathy for pensioners, voiced in 2022 as he acknowledged their struggles with rising living costs, seems hollow now, as his government has slashed the winter heating allowance for up to four out of five pensioners, while ‘warm banks’ have become the temporary solution for those who can’t afford to heat their homes. His pre-leadership promises to abolish tuition fees for students have also been undone, with tuition fees rising for the first time since 2017.
Perhaps most notably, promises made to farmers have been broken. Environment Secretary Steve Reed had assured farmers last December that there would be no changes to inheritance tax, including Agricultural Property Relief (APR). Yet Rachel Reeves’ recent budget revealed that inheritance tax will now apply to assets over £1 million, triggering fears that many farmers will be forced to sell land to pay for their children’s inheritance taxes.
It’s clear that Starmer’s words have failed to match his government’s actions. As he once rhetorically asked, ‘What does it say about Britain when families worry like this about their children’s future?’ It now seems that Starmer is more concerned with fulfilling the ideological desires of the left-wing of his party than with addressing the practical concerns of the working and middle classes. The Labour government appears to have forgotten its supposed duty to support all sectors of society, not just the public sector and trade unions.
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Public sector workers, in contrast, seem to be reaping the rewards of Starmer’s policies. Some train drivers stand to earn £81,278 for a four-day week, while junior doctors are set to receive a 22.3% pay rise over the next two years. Meanwhile, Starmer’s rhetoric about ‘working people’ increasingly seems to exclude small business owners, savers, and middle-class families, creating a growing chasm between Labour’s promises and their policies.
Starmer’s vision of a compassionate government seems increasingly hollow, as his party becomes more out of touch with the people it claims to represent. The Labour leadership’s decisions have only amplified the divide between the political elite and ordinary citizens. The 2.9 million signatories of the ‘Call a General Election’ petition might have known they were engaging in a protest rather than demanding immediate change, but their action serves as a warning. Starmer’s government could face a backlash so severe that it risks repeating the mistakes of past administrations.
For Starmer, the clock is ticking. The promise of a ‘new Labour’ that values fairness, dignity, and opportunity is rapidly losing its shine. If he fails to recalibrate his approach, voters may turn their backs on him, just as swiftly as they once embraced him. The longer this government is in power, the greater the chance that it will fall into the same traps that have doomed its predecessors: ideological infighting, policy missteps, and a failure to deliver on core promises. The countdown to the next election may be longer than anticipated, but with disillusionment growing by the day, it seems clear that things can only get worse for Keir Starmer.
