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Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is a contributing editor to the FT
It's harder than it looks. The saying goes that politicians campaign in poetry, but are forced to govern in prose. For Sir Keir Starmer, the five months since Labour's election victory have been like a journey from the parade ground to the trenches.
The latest fire to come comes from women protesting the timing of increases in the state retirement age. In opposition, Starmer stood alongside women aged between 60 and 70 who claim they have been subjected to unfair treatment. The independent experts agreed with them. This may be the case, but the Prime Minister is now saying that the government cannot afford the compensation.
These WASP women (Women Against State Pension Inequality) are not alone. the cancellation The annual winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners has led to a revolt in the backbenches. Now business leaders, who were courted heavily while Labor was in opposition, complain bitterly that a sharp increase in national insurance contributions would hurt investment and employment. Farmers took to the streets against the imposition of inheritance tax on agricultural land. Starmer's poll ratings have fallen.
The economy is not helping. The Labor Party bet on the bank on a growth recovery. Rachel Reeves' Budget restored credibility to public finance management. It also provided much-needed money to keep the NHS afloat and start repairing broken public services. But this package did not succeed in reviving confidence. Growth has stalled and inflation has proven stubborn.
A glance at the Conservatives' sorry economic legacy suggests that the Treasury was more right than wrong. Grants to wealthy retirees and tax breaks for investors who buy farmland don't make sense at the best of times. Who can blame ministers for the slogan that it was the Conservatives who wrecked the economy? The mistake is to think that the Labor Party will be thanked for the pain it took to put things right.
Ministers cannot expect the benefit of the doubt from the media. The psychodrama of the post-Brexit collapse of the Conservative Party and the rise of instant judgment social media has turned political reporting into a game of gotcha. The common currency is exaggeration. The government, which is going through a bad phase, considers it mired in crisis and the power struggle among its aides to be evidence of the collapse of the prime minister's authority.
Those with longer views will remember that even successful prime ministers have bad spells. When, in the fall of 1980, Margaret Thatcher made the bold pledge that “Lady is not for transformation,” much of the country and a good portion of her party were revolting against her shock-therapy economic policy. Tony Blair's early prime ministership was marred by a more serious rebellion against welfare cuts than the one Starmer faced. Five months into his first term, Blair felt compelled to publicly claim to be an “upright person” amid accusations of money-for-influence corruption.
None of this is to say that Starmer's government has not made mistakes. If Labor did not know the exact size of the Tories' fiscal hole, it was clear enough before the election that rebuilding public services would require significant tax rises. Too many ministers still seem to think it is enough to blame the Conservatives. Excessive campaigning and lack of governance – this is how one senior British government official put it. Over time, good policy breeds good public relations. The opposite does not hold.
Things will get tougher. The unpopular choice between raising taxes and cutting spending will not disappear. Foreign policy rarely featured in Labour's Bulletin. While in office, Starmer discovered that Britain faced the greatest national security threat since the end of the Cold War. In the face of the threat of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's disdain for NATO, the government will have to do just that. Spend more on defense. Much more. The money has to come from somewhere.
The government will also need to invest political capital in rebuilding Britain's relationship with the EU. The economic and security cases that call for a much closer arrangement speak for themselves. But so far Starmer has not been willing to abandon an election campaign mentality that has seen Labor fear accusations that it will “sell out” to Brussels.
The news isn't all bleak. The government enjoys a solid majority. After being reduced to just 121 seats in the House of Commons, the Conservatives have chosen in Kemi Badenoch a leader whom many MPs have little confidence in. In denying responsibility for the defeat, the party remains deeply divided over how to respond to what appears to be a growing threat to its right flank from Nigel Farage's Reform Party.
Therefore, Starmer has time to navigate the storms. The danger is not a long wave of unpopularity, but rather a feeling that the government is captive to circumstances. The Prime Minister will never be a great visionary. The vision is not really what Britain needs at the present time. But in difficult times, governments need to demonstrate regulatory purpose that goes beyond the usual set of individual policies. There is a perfectly good story about how Britain could find its way to prosper again as an important modern European country. It needs a narrator.
