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John Ivison: Starmer’s downfall is a warning to prime ministers who don’t deliver

Widespread economic anxieties and distrust of institutions remain in Canada. There is the potential for Carney to suffer the same fate

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British prime ministers have for the past 65 years had their public image satirized in Private Eye magazine, an often-unflattering pastiche that generally finds its way into the mainstream culture.

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From the outset of his time in No. 10 Downing Street, Keir Starmer — who on Monday announced plans to resign — was portrayed as a dull, indecisive, overly cautious middle manager. It was a caricature not improved last May by his decision to cut expensive winter fuel subsidies for pensioners, only to change course after an internal rebellion of Labour MPs. The Private Eye cover that week featured the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, saying: “I thought we weren’t going to do a U-turn” and Starmer stammering: “I’ve changed my mind.”

John Ivison: Starmer’s downfall is a warning to prime ministers who don’t deliver Back to video

It may have been unfair but the British public formed the impression of a man who was so dull he was the cause of dullness in others. As former Labour health minister Aneurin Bevan once said of another former leader, Clement Atlee, “he makes a trumpet sound like a tin whistle and brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket........

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