Keir Starmer's current predicament will either force him to grow a spine or accept that his fate is sealed, Gary Mason writes.James Manning/Reuters
When the British version of Saturday Night Live debuted on March 21, it opened with a political sketch based around a phone call Prime Minister Keir Starmer was placing to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The purpose was to inform the President that Great Britain had no intention of joining the war in Iran. The aim of the sketch, however, was to put Mr. Starmer and his bumbling, stumbling, equivocating ways in the global spotlight.
“What do I say, Lammy?” Mr. Starmer, played by George Fouracres, says to his deputy PM David Lammy, played by Hammed Animashaun. “I’m out of my depth here, Lammy.”
When Mr. Trump comes through the speaker, Mr. Starmer picks up the handset and quickly hangs it up, petrified by the response he’s in store for.
It was brilliant. Mr. Trump posted a clip from the skit on his Truth Social account, doubtlessly thrilled to see a fellow leader mocked for being intimidated by the U.S. President. It’s little surprise the cast of SNL UK has gone back to skewering the unpopular British leader in almost every episode of the show since.
When a politician becomes a regular object of ridicule by the late-night roast masters, it’s never a good sign. And the folks at SNL UK must be praying that Mr. Starmer can hang on to his job for a while yet as the show gets its first season off the ground.
It’s not looking good.
Keir Starmer faces chorus of calls to resign as Labour Party trounced in local elections
While there has always been a certain degree of drama and dysfunction associated with British politics, there has never been an epoch quite like the one we’re in now. Britain has burned through five prime ministers in seven years. In 2019, Theresa May gave way to Boris Johnson, who gave way to Liz Truss, who lasted all of 49 days. She handed off to Rishi Sunak, who led the Conservatives into the 2024 election in which they were annihilated by Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party.
Now, after Labour got pulverized in recent elections, people both inside the party and out are calling for Mr. Starmer’s head. How did someone who was a respected prosecutor and seen as a competent, even-handed politician became so unpopular, so quickly?
Two things are happening.
Mr. Starmer has been rightly criticized for not doing what he campaigned on, notably improving public services. Health care waitlists remain an enormous problem, local governments are severely under-resourced and roads are in lousy shape, while the cost of living, accelerated by the war in Iran, is making people angrier than ever.
Second, when you have as many problems as Britain does, it takes a certain type of person to sell hope. Selling hope might also mean selling tough measures to come to grips with the country’s enormous debt problems. That takes a special skillset. What will never work is blandness and prevarication. People smell weakness.
Football stadiums now reverberate with chants insulting Mr. Starmer, calling him a “wanker” and much, much worse. Former political rival Michael Gove wrote an op-ed three years ago that called the now-PM “transparent, spineless and swept along by any incoming tide,” words that now seem prophetic.
Opinion: Why Scotland said a grudging ‘aye’ to the SNP again
One poll this month showed more than 50 per cent of Britons want Mr. Starmer to go, up seven points from the month before. A YouGov poll in late April indicated 58 per cent of those surveyed said Mr. Starmer had been a bad or terrible PM. He is the most unpopular leader on record.
More than 80 members of his caucus and cabinet have asked him to step down. A couple of people have indicated they will challenge him for his job, including his health secretary, Wes Streeting, who resigned, saying he no longer had confidence in his boss.
It doesn’t help that Mr. Starmer’s often feeble-looking response to Mr. Trump has been sharply contrasted by European leaders who are increasingly unafraid to criticize the American President. Certainly, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez hasn’t hesitated to call out Mr. Trump for his actions, particularly as it comes to the war in Iran. Now other European leaders are joining in: Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz have all had harsh words for Mr. Trump.
It only makes Mr. Starmer look more wimpish.
It’s difficult to say where things are heading. Mr. Starmer has vowed to fight on, even against any challengers. Maybe the predicament he finds himself in will change him, force him to grow a spine.
Or he may ultimately see that his fate is sealed, step down and let someone else tackle Britain’s many intractable problems. And then he can sit back and watch the public turn on his successor as it inevitably will.