this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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UK Politics

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Astonishingly awful polling for Starmer, who has destroyed his favourability among everyone especially his own voters, while somehow making Farage more popular. If I was Morgan McSweeney, I would quit my job.

Some other 'highlights':

'This is the first time Keir Starmer has recorded a net negative approval rating among Labour voters.'

Labour is now even more unpopular than the lowest point of Corbyn's leadership.

EDIT:

Just so I can say 'I told you so', if:

  • There isn't an all-out war in Europe, and,
  • Starmer's still PM at the next GE

Then he will lose his own seat.

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[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Not from the UK -- what did this guy do?

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

A few things.

  1. He came into power because the electorate were looking for change. We're still looking for it because he's just slowed the decay a little, and hasn't really made any big plays.
  2. Whereas leaders like Canada's Mark Carney have basically told Trump to take a flying leap off a short pier, Starmer has tried to play to his ego. He's invited him for a state visit, which is pretty much universally hated. He's negotiated over tariffs. He's normalised what Trump does.
  3. The government are currently fighting a court case where their lawyers claim the is "no evidence of genocide in Gaza" therefore arms sales to Israel are legal. Starmer is an ex-human-rights lawyer.
  4. He recently made a speech about immigration calling the UK an "Island of strangers". He's chasing a right-wing vote because the right-wing Reform Party are getting stronger. None of them would touch him with a barge pole so it's pointless. While he's doing this the left-wing base are ditching him for the Greens and LibDems.

So if you're a pro-austerity pro-israel anti-immigration Trumper who thinks Reform UK is a step too far, you'll be happy with Starmer. Otherwise you're looking for other options.

[–] FarceOfWill@infosec.pub 7 points 1 week ago

Let's add one

  • Saw the supreme court rule the law has always been that trans women aren't allowed in spaces for women, and did nothing at all about it despite previously saying trans women are women. We're going to have the most draconian toilet legislation In the world apparently written a decade ago entirely by accident and the pm acts like it's nothing to do with him.
[–] gedhrel@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

He rode to power on the back of not being from the party behind the least popular government in fucking ages (after 14 years of disaster). He made lots of promises to appeal to the essentially left-wing party that he's the leader of. In any case, he wound up with a landslide parliamentary majority off the back of around a third of the actual vote.

Since then he's put Wes Streeting in charge of the NHS and McSweeney in charge of strategy, and has chased the racist vote that's stoked up by Nige "Brexit" Farage.

So he's triangulating right to chase the votes of people who can't stand him and will never vote for him, and in the space of a month has lost 34 approval points from actual Labour voters to wind up with a net -5 approval or something like that.

What's odd is that I know people who've met him and worked with him personally, and they are all largely of the belief that he's a man of deep principle. Which just goes to show his talent, because he's hiding it incredibly well at the moment.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 week ago

Decided to blame immigrants for all the country's problems.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

He's a Conservative who took over our main 'left' party and ousted all the leftwing politicians from it. He's pro-israel (his wife is israeli), anti-immigration, deeply transphobic, fucking over the disabled and impoverished, further fucking over the NHS, etc.

There's more but I don't want to keep thinking about this as it's upsetting and I have shit to do today.

[–] UrbonMaximus@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can you provide any source on Victoria Starmer being an Israeli. I was searching and couldn't find anything to support that claim.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It was mentioned she's a double citizen in multiple news articles at one point, I'm pretty sure I even read it in the guardian, but it's not coming up when I'm searching for it now either, just that the PM and his wife have 'israeli family'.

[–] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Maybe you are thinking of this guardian article it touches the topic area near the end though doesn’t mention dual citizenship

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 days ago

I hadn't actualy read that one, I don't think.

Holy shit though, according this article Starmer's wife's mother converted (not an easy process in Judaism!) but apprently Starmer's FIL and his family don't accept her as actually Jewish? That's not how conversion works with Judaism, if you manage to get in, you're actually in, and if you're a woman, any kids you have will be born Jewish.

And not to mention converts are allowed isreali citizenship under their law of return, just like any other Jewish person.

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Firstly I am not aware of his wife being Israeli. Apparently she is British. Secondly, even if hypothetically she has Israeli citizenship, that doesn't necessarily determine that Keir would be pro-Israel. It also doesn't determine that Keir would support the current government of Israel.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Starmers behaviour is undeniably pro israel though. He's jailed reporters for reporting too accurately on this genocide, he's been sending over huge amounts of weapons to israel, his 'human rights' lawyer mates have decided that the genocide of Palestinians is warranted, etc.

Him having israeli family just adds to this compromising behaviour.

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My understanding is that his wife is Jewish but that doesn't mean she is Israeli. I think she's just British. It's like how not every Muslim is Asian; there are British Muslims.

It's fair to criticise Starmer for his policies on Israel, obviously, and it's fair to say he's too pro-Israel if you think he is. But I don't think his wife's background necessarily determines Starmer's views. Just like it would be wrong to assume that Sadiq Khan practices political favouritism towards Pakistan just because he has family from there.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

So you believe Starmer's family ties to israel are just coincidental and completely unrelated to his zionist policies? That he just decided on his own, completely independent of any israeli influence, that genociding Palestinians is acceptable?

Sadiq Khan doesn't actively practice or advocate for political favouritism towards Pakistan or Islam. The only people assuming he does are stupid racists.

It's not antisemitic to hate israel. Nor is it bigoted or remotely stupid to look at Starmer's zionist behaviour and active political support of genocide, and link it to him having a direct connection to israel.

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why do you only call it racism when we're talking about Muslims, but not when we're talking about Jews? It's either racism in both cases, or racism in neither case.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because the idiots who think Sadiq favours Muslims, think all Muslims are brown.

It's not racist or antisemetic to hate isresl. Nor is it racist or antisemetic to be opposed to having a genocidal zionist with isareli family as the prime minister.

Jewish people are not all isrelli. Israeli people are not a race. And a great many Jews are actively opposed to zionism and the genocide of Palestinians.

Stop trying to imply shit.

Our PM is a zionist with israeli family, who is actively supporting the genocide of Palestinians. This is literally undisputable.

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Criticising Israel is obviously not antisemitic, but you seem to be assuming that Starmer's wife is Israeli. And even if she was, that wouldn't necessarily mean that Starmer shows favouritism towards Israel.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So you're saying that everything Starmer has done in aid of israel genociding Palestinians, isn't him showing israllel favouritism? How do you come to that conclusion?

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You said

Our PM is a zionist with israeli family

And everyone keeps asking for a citation that his wife is Israeli. Our PM could just simply be an absolute cunt without blood ties.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Double posted that reply, sorry!

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

And I agreed that I couldn't find a source. Did you not see that bit?

The fact that Starmer is actively supporting and funding isreel's genocide of Palestinians, and he has isreeli family and close ties to the country, should really not be ignored though.

If our next PM has a spouse with russian heritage and half the family lives in russia, and this PM starts massively funding and politically supporting the russian invasion of Ukraine, while imprisoning pro-Ukraine reporters and protestors... would you also claim the PM having russian family and close ties to russia, was completely irrelevant to their motives?

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I did, but you still reiterated the point hence why people keep calling you out on it.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

No, I stopped mentioning his wife being usraelli after I couldn't find a source, I kept talking about half the pms family being from isrell instead, which there is a source for.

It's like you weren't actually reading what I wrote and have been making things up to get offended with me over.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 2 points 5 days ago

You must be mixing me up with someone else, because I'm definitely not offended.

The PM is a two faced prick, I think we can all agree on that. And that's really all that matters.

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Maybe Starmer is too pro-Israel, I'm not denying that bit. I just don't think his wife's nationality or religion is relevant. Just like I think it would be wrong to assume that Sadiq Khan favours Pakistan when he makes political decisions, just because he has Pakistani heritage.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

If our next PM has a spouse with russian heritage and half the family lives in russia, and this PM then starts massively funding and politically supporting the russian invasion of Ukraine while imprisoning pro-Ukraine reporters and protestors... would you also claim the PM having russian family and close ties to russia, is completely irrelevant to their pro-russia motives?

[–] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I don't think their family would be relevant in that case. If the next PM did start supporting Russia then I would criticise them for that decision, regardless of whether family connections influenced their decision or not.

Anyway. Like I say, we don't seem to know whether Starmer's wife even has Israeli citizenship. I definitely think it would be wrong to assume she does just because she's Jewish.

But even if Starmer's wife does have Israeli citizenship, that doesn't necessarily make Starmer pro-Israel. He might be too pro-Israel, but a hypothetical Israeli wife wouldn't necessarily make him pro-Israel.

[–] Twig@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

His behaviour says otherwise. He's literally out tory'd the torys.

[–] Twig@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It'd be far worse under the Conservatives.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Our former human rights lawyer of a PM has been fucking over those in need of human rights at breakneck speed in the last ten months, he's well out paced the nearly 15 previous years of tory bullshit in this regard. Have you not been paying attention, or do you just not consider the people he's hurting to be worthy of human rights?

The only 'Labour' things about Starmer are the party he took over and the fact he's as much a war criminal as Blair.

[–] Twig@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Perhaps you've ignored what's actually happened over those 15 years.

[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago

Can you point to a single year of that last 15 under the Tory's, where they achieved as much lasting harm to as many different groups of people, as Starmer has managed to in the last 10 months?

At least the torys were incompetent bigots. This prick we now have is a fucking wrecking ball.

[–] Trilobyte@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A wolf in sheep's clothing. Labour is our main left wing party, but he's left wing in name only. Blames immigration for all our problems while screwing over vulnerable people plus dismantling the NHS even more.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

and flirting with Fascists like Trump and Netanyahu