(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer promised British voters the Labour Party would put public service at the heart of a “mission-led” government after years of Conservative scandals. Barely two months in, his premiership is mired in awkward stories about political donors, freebies and feuding staff.
As Labour’s annual conference begins in Liverpool on Sunday — its first in power for 15 years — a row is playing out between fiscal hawks and those who want to tax the rich and bolster public services. Starmer faces questions about his judgment in accepting more than £100,000 ($133,000) of gifts since 2019.
Near daily news reports about the activities of his high-profile chief of staff, Sue Gray — including most recently that she’s paid more than the premier — have created the sense that the government is already fracturing. The palace intrigue is all anyone in the party is talking about, one minister said privately.
But Starmer is determined to reset the conversation. On Friday, a person close to the prime minister said that Starmer would not longer accept gifts of clothing. The premier told Cabinet ministers this week Labour’s conference slogan would be “Change Begins” and that he would set out a more optimistic view in his speech Tuesday of what the government wants to achieve.
Starmer similarly assured a small group of cheering activists who greeted him at the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool on Saturday that the event would show “how we’re fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country,” according to the Press Association.
The upbeat messaging is a recognition, aides acknowledged, of the criticism leveled at the premier over his gloomy budget rhetoric and complaints about Labour’s inheritance from the Tories. The idea is to reassure people that tough budget measures in store for Oct. 30 will yield something better in the long-run.
The challenge is getting the public to hear it. For weeks, Starmer’s been unable to move past questions about things like the Downing Street pass he gave to Waheed Alli, a businessman who’s donated more than £575,000 to Labour politicians since 2020 — including paying for clothes for the premier’s wife. Alli also advised on public appointments, raising conflict of interest concerns.
What began with scrutiny of Alli has morphed into sustained media coverage of the gifts Starmer has previously accepted from the private sector, including tickets to a Taylor Swift concert and Arsenal football games. While all appear in various parliamentary and ministerial registers, the risk for Starmer is that the narrative that he’s a willing participant in the status quo takes hold.
“You’ve got to look at why Labour and Starmer in particular won,” said Luke Tryl, director at the More In Common think tank. “It wasn’t his charisma, or for many voters his policy prescription. Instead, people liked the fact the he seemed like an antidote to the chaos and sleaze of the last government.”
Labour voters expected Starmer to hold himself to a higher standard, according to Tryl, but “in failing to do so he’s risking not only making voters doubt his judgment, but also coming across as a hypocrite.”
Voters appear to have to noticed, with polls showing Starmer’s personal approval rating has slumped, with support for Labour also slipping.
Several advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity to express their private views, told Bloomberg they thought Starmer should commit to not accepting gifts and free perks now that he is prime minister. One also said it was an error to give Alli, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, access to Downing Street.
Still, some argue that the poll drop and furor surrounding Starmer represent teething problems for the new Labour government rather than a serous threat to its power five years out from the next general election. It has a working majority of 167 in the House of Commons, giving Starmer significant wiggle room to implement an agenda he has said would make the country “materially better off” before the next national vote.
Yet there are also signs that the rocky start to his premiership is exposing deeper issues Starmer could struggle to resolve. Much of the focus in Labour is landing on Gray, Starmer’s chief of staff who is responsible for his political operation, but increasingly becoming the story herself.
The BBC reported Wednesday that Gray was being paid more than the prime minister, and the national broadcaster also cited people it didn’t identify attacking her leadership style and portraying Starmer’s office as dysfunctional.
It was the latest in a series of critical briefings against Gray, which have snowballed since signs of tensions between her and other senior Starmer aides emerged this year. Aides have complained that Gray personally informed ministers of their appointments, posed for photographs with US President Joe Biden and cut the number of special advisers and block appointments of some people who worked for Labour in opposition.
The bigger risk for Gray is that some Labour advisers are questioning her political judgment, with Starmer exposed to negative headlines including about Alli, who is a close associate of hers. One said it would have made more sense for her to remain as a civil servant rather than take a political role.
Another adviser warned it was becoming hard to get things done in 10 Downing St., and suggested Starmer would soon have to decide whether to back or sack his top aide. The person speculated Gray could even leave after conference.
Others have rallied behind Gray, calling the idea that she would leave her role nonsense. They said she’d become a lightning rod for complaints that weren’t her fault, with pay-band decisions up to the civil service.
Home Office minister Jess Phillips told Sky News on Friday that Gray was an “amazing advocate” for ministers, and accused those briefing against her of creating a “distraction” from the work the government was doing. A senior No. 10 official said that it was Gray’s job to say “no” to people and that was no excuse to criticize her in the press.
One of Gray’s defenders said that Simon Case — the head of the civil service whom Gray suspects is involved in some of the stories — would have to leave his role soon. Case has denied being the source of leaks, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
Regardless, the picture that emerges is of Starmer’s top team at war with itself. People familiar with his thinking said he is frustrated, and has called for an inquiry into the briefings against Gray. Yet in his senior team, there’s surprise at how quickly the hostility against him and his chief of staff built up.
In broadcast interviews ahead of the Labour conference, Starmer insisted he is “completely in control” and that his team is focused on the government’s “big mandate to deliver change.” It’s a reflection of his early struggles that he must now use his time in Liverpool to prove it.
(Updates with Starmer’s arrival in Liverpool in fifth paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.