Keir Starmer resigned as Labour leader with opinion polls indicating he was the most unpopular prime minister in modern times. This is despite the fact he had secured the second-highest postwar parliamentary majority only two years earlier.

But over those two years, “Keir Starmer is a wanker” was chanted at anti-asylum protests, in football grounds, at festivals and during televised darts competitions. Facebook and X feeds were full of anti-Starmer content. “Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out” was Reform UK’s campaign slogan at the May local elections.

The left and right had their own favourite (albeit contradictory) reasons as to why he should be disliked. But there was something strange about this vehemently hostile public mood towards such a sober, unemotional politician. It seemed to go beyond the normal anger that many prime ministers face from opponents.

The politics of feeling

Dislike, even apparent hatred, of Starmer was only partially about his performance as prime minister. It also exemplifies what Anna Secor and I call the “politics of feeling” in our book of the same name. We argue that in the turbulent period since the 2008 financial crisis, politics in the UK and US has no longer been about coherent ideology expressed through policy and programmes.

We argue that, instead,........

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