Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Image: PA)
Since Sir Keir Starmer assumed office as Prime Minister in July 2024, his government has been on a steady trajectory towards becoming one of the most unpopular in recent history.
A recent poll reveals that 61% of the public are dissatisfied with his track record, including a significant 39% of Labour supporters. This is a striking indictment of a government that was elected with high hopes but has faltered on key promises.
Starmer’s administration has resorted to headline-chasing gimmicks instead of delivering substantive results. This is a huge mistake.
One of the most glaring examples of this trend is Starmer’s immigration policy. As I have argued in these pages before, there was no realistic chance of Starmer delivering on his promise to “smash the gangs” responsible for facilitating illegal Channel crossings.
The numbers tell the story: since Starmer took office, 20,110 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats—a staggering 78% increase compared to the 11,309 arrivals during ’s first 150 days as Prime Minister. Far from stemming the tide, the situation has worsened under his leadership.
In response, Starmer has introduced a new sanctions regime targeting irregular migration and organized immigration crime. The policy allows authorities to freeze assets, impose travel bans, and disrupt financial flows linked to smuggling networks.
While this sounds promising on paper, it is unlikely to have any tangible impact on the number of boats crossing the Channel.
Many of these criminal networks operate far beyond the UK’s jurisdiction—in countries like Cambodia, Turkey, and Thailand—and rely on encrypted communication apps and the hawala payment system, making them exceptionally difficult to disrupt.
This measure, while necessary, will have no discernible impact on the numbers of boat crossings and smacks of a government desperate to appear tough rather than actually solving the issue.
Another example of gimmickry is the recently announced restriction on online knife sales, a policy clearly aimed at deflecting attention from the catastrophic failure of multiple agencies to prevent the Rudakubana tragedy.
The idea that restricting online knife sales will significantly reduce violent crime is both simplistic and misguided. If Rudakubana had been unable to purchase a knife online, he could just as easily have taken one from a kitchen drawer.
The problem lies not in the availability of knives but in systemic failures to address the root causes of violent crime. Once again, this is a policy designed to generate headlines rather than results.
When governments run out of ideas, they often turn to policies that are more about optics than outcomes. This tactic has been mastered by the Scottish National Party () in Scotland, whose history of gimmick policies provides a cautionary tale for the Starmer government.
The ’s initiatives, such as free baby boxes, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), the Named Person Scheme, and free laptops or tablets for schoolchildren, were widely criticized as being developed purely for PR purposes.
These policies garnered attention but failed to deliver meaningful change, leaving the public increasingly disillusioned. Starmer seems to be taking a page out of the ’s playbook, with similarly underwhelming results.
The public’s dissatisfaction with the Starmer government is not just about individual policies; it is about a broader sense that this administration lacks a clear vision or coherent strategy.
A government that came into power with promises of competence and reform now appears rudderless, lurching from one initiative to the next in a desperate bid to regain public trust.
But gimmicks will not solve the underlying problems facing the country—whether it is immigration, violent crime, or the cost-of-living crisis. The clock is ticking for Starmer to turn things around.
Unless he can offer more than superficial policies and empty promises, his government risks being remembered not for its achievements but for its squandered opportunities.