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.
Comments