Sir Keir Starmer needs his government to reset after first 100 days
As day 100 dawns on Sir Keir Starmer’s government, the Prime Minister will be wondering how he can turn around the spiral of negativity.
Sir Keir enjoyed a honeymoon period in his first weeks in office, and was strong in his response to the riots, however now his popularity has dropped Nigel Farage.
The Prime Minister is hoping to make a virtue of “unpopular decisions”, but has struggled for the most part to explain how these are beneficial to voters.
The Winter Fuel Payment cut, just months before the weather gets cold, punctured the new government’s bubble.
With no apparent communications strategy and no impact assessment, Labour immediately made itself an enemy of the sizeable voting bloc of pensioners.
The Yorkshire Post was inundated with letters from readers who said they felt betrayed by Sir Keir after lending him their vote.
While one senior backbencher told this paper that there had been no warning for MPs, who suddenly had floods of furious emails filling their inboxes.
“There has been absolutely no engagement with us from the government,” they said.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, claimed the cut was essential to fill the apparent £22 billion black hole left by the Tories.
However it has since emerged that if the government signs up everyone who is eligible to pension credit, as it has pledged, that entire saving may be wiped out.
Sir Keir and Cabinet ministers have become embroiled in a row about freebies, gifts and hospitality.
Sir Keir seems unable to understand the optics of this, and first refused to apologise or give up the freebies.
Given he has spent the last four years slamming the Tories over every hint of sleaze, it would appear obvious that he has to remain scandal-free in office.
The new No10 operation failed to get a grip on the freebies story, which was allowed to bubble away for weeks.
The Yorkshire Post heard there was disquiet as special advisers (SpAds) were being paid less in government than in opposition, with Ms Gray allegedly signing off the salaries and putting them on short-term contracts.
Several sources also told this paper they believed Ms Gray’s handling of the media grid allowed negative stories to fill a policy vacuum.
Now there can be no excuses, with Sir Keir’s top team refreshed, however there are few people with government experience.
In Parliament, there are also hundreds of new MPs walking the corridors of power.
The new diversity and age demographics have refreshed the House of Commons, giving a completely different feel to Westminster than before the election.
In Yorkshire and the Humber, there are 18 new members from 29-year-old Luke Charters to 66-year-old Paul Davies.
Fifteen of those are Labour, with one Liberal Democrat, one independent and a solitary new Conservative in Charlie Dewhirst.
All are bringing different experiences and perspectives to the role.
As Harpreet Uppal, the new MP for Huddersfield, said: “Listening to people’s maiden speeches has been great.
“All the new MPs have really different experiences and diverse upbringings - it’s really fascinating.”