Labour’s turbulent first year: U-turns, leadership questions and the growing threat from reform as many voters lose patience.

National World - LocalTV

One year after Labour’s landslide victory, the government faces deepening turmoil, high-profile policy reversals, and mounting public frustration.With party unity under pressure and Reform UK’s surge reshaping the political landscape, serious questions are being asked about the future of Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

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00:00It's now more than a year since Labour took office, but after a turbulent 12 months marked

00:05by U-turns and mounting public criticism, questions are growing about the party's ability

00:11to deliver on promises of stability and renewal. So just how secure is the leadership after

00:18such a difficult first year?

00:20What difference a year brings, as I say, it's the anniversary of being in power after 15

00:27years of the Conservatives, albeit, of course, the first five years was in coalition with

00:32the Liberal Democrats. But then, of course, we had all the chaos of Brexit. So this was

00:36supposed to be a new start. But for sure, Keir Starmer's administration doesn't look very

00:41sure-footed. There is a real difficulty with the number of U-turns that Starmer's had to

00:46do, of course, the latest being about the welfare cuts. And, of course, his authority is much

00:51diminished. If I compared him to previous prime ministers, take, for instance, Margaret Thatcher

00:56or Tony Blair, you know, you can't imagine this happening to them.

01:00The government insists it's inherited a multi-billion pound black hole in public finances,

01:07a deficit, it says, is crippling its agenda. But the opposition has dismissed this claim,

01:12calling it exaggerated and politically motivated. What's the reality behind the figures? And how

01:19much is this narrative shaping what ministers can or can't do now?

01:24I think we were left with an economic legacy from the previous administration, which meant,

01:29of course, whoever was going to win that election, whether it was the Tories back in power or Labour

01:33had to confront it. The difficulty for the Labour Party, it's traditionally a party that looks

01:39after the less well-off. And, of course, people, the MPs that are subscribed to that, that was

01:45part of the election manifesto. So they find making welfare cuts, particularly disabled people,

01:50yeah, it's just unpalatable. So, of course, that's why the bill had to be sort of changed,

01:56which, of course, has undermined Starmer's authority.

01:58One of the most contentious moves this year was converting the winter fuel allowance into a

02:03means-tested benefit, removing payments for around 10 million pensioners, only to reverse it after

02:10widespread backlash. With that U-turn and other welfare cuts, how deeply has confidence in the

02:17government been eroded?

02:19Traditionally, there's always the argument there's money to fight wars, there was money to sort of

02:22deal with Covid. But, of course, when it comes to sort of dealing with the less well-off and old-age

02:27pensioners, the fact that, of course, one of the first things that Labour did was to sort of to get

02:31rid of the winter fuel allowance for old-age pensioners, bar those on certain sort of levels

02:35of benefit, you know, that didn't go down well. Undoubtedly, the only beneficiaries of this are sort of

02:42the reform party, of course, are saying, well, yeah, there is money. And, of course, I suspect

02:46the sort of, you know, that they are delighted by the events because, of course, it means that

02:49their poll ratings go up. But, hey, the real difficulty is that in the next four years, because

02:54I believe the sort of the Labour administration will go as late as possible for the election

02:59because there's no advantage to going early because people will lose their seats, you know,

03:03unless they can develop a sort of a census of more short-footedness and, dare I say it,

03:08turn the economy around, we're going to end up in, you know, at the next election with

03:12the Labour government. They've really not changed that much.

03:15With questions swirling over both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, the central question

03:19is now whether either can make it to the next election or if this year of instability has

03:26already set the stage for change at the very top.

03:30We will see in the sort of the party political sort of conference season, you know, how events

03:34play out. I think if there's any sort of concerted push to get rid of Starmer, it may

03:38come sooner rather than later. The one thing that sort of Starmer probably will benefit

03:42from is there are various factions. So, you know, the idea of a sort of concerted sort

03:46of a coup, as it were, is more unlikely than likely. I think the sort of the idea is if

03:51as soon as sort of Starmer sacks Reeves or were to do that, then of course she is effectively

03:57become the lightning rod, they'll turn on him. So I think he knows that sort of their fate

04:00is intertwined and of course they sort of they're going to sort of stick this one out together

04:04for as long as possible. But, hey, you know, things could change very quickly.

04:08After a turbulent year marked by public rows, policy reversals and growing uncertainty, the

04:15government faces a defining test. Rebuilding trust with the electorate and restoring authority

04:21will be crucial. With political opponents gaining ground, the choices made now could shape

04:27the country's direction for years to come.

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