By Elizabeth Piper
LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Keir Starmer was once hailed as the leader who would bring pragmatism and stability to Britain after years of political chaos. But the very lack of ideology that propelled him to power has left him fighting for his political survival after less than two years as prime minister.
After guiding the Labour Party into power in 2024 with one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in Britain's modern history, Starmer favoured the art of the possible, rather than setting out a clear vision of a future Britain.
That, more than 20 party insiders said, has left the former human rights lawyer buffeted by competing Labour factions and misunderstood by wary voters, many of whom came to see him as indecisive and lacking charisma.
Now, deeply unpopular among voters for perceived broken promises and policy U-turns, Starmer has hit the worst crisis of his tenure - triggered by the wholesale rejection of Labour in elections last week to local councils in England and to the parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday he pledged to fight on, but a growing number of Labour lawmakers have called on him to set a timetable for his departure, saying they cannot enter a national election due in 2029 with him at the helm.
FEAR OF FARAGE
Starmer's government faced a difficult inheritance in July 2024 - high borrowing and weak economic growth, battered public services and a pre-election promise not to hike income tax or VAT that left little fiscal room for manoeuvre.
But almost from the start his policies have too often unravelled, resignations and sackings from his team have followed, leaving the remaining trusted aides around him struggling to help him offer the country a clear narrative of what his government wants to do to "change Britain".
Catherine West, a lawmaker who broke cover at the weekend to try to force others to mount a challenge against the prime minister, said her main motivation was fear that Starmer leading Labour into the next national election would open the way for Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK to win.
"I would do anything to stop Farage," she told Reuters.
It was never meant to be this way.
After becoming a Labour lawmaker in 2015 at the age of 52, Starmer was elected leader just five years later, inheriting the party after its worst election showing since 1935 under veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.
He used his experience of running the Crown Prosecution Service, the public agency that advises police and prosecutes criminal cases, to try to modernise the Labour Party, and ultimately make it more electable.
"Everything we offer will be built on a bedrock of economic stability and a plan for growth," his spokesperson said at the time.
Initially it worked. His newly re-fashioned Labour won a large majority in Britain's 650-seat parliament, but analysts were quick to point out that the party's victory was wide but shallow - Labour actually secured one of its lowest vote shares ever and the win was highly dependent on tactical voting.
After years of infighting, Brexit battles and five prime ministers in eight years, the Conservatives had all but self-destructed.
John Curtice, Britain's best-known pollster, said: "All in all this looks more like an election the Conservatives lost than one Labour won."
FRUSTRATION SET IN OVER ACHIEVEMENTS
Starting from a fragile base, Starmer has not been helped by the government's cautious approach to policy and a narrative that Britain's many problems, from lack of housing to anaemic growth, will all take time to fix.
In power, Starmer's government has struggled first to define its policy agenda and then to implement it - growth has continued to sputter, illegal migrants keep arriving, and the creaking health system has thrown up more challenges.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to Starmer, appeared to admit to a parliamentary committee in December that Labour was underprepared for government, explaining that in opposition it had diverted its limited resources to the election campaign.
And several ministers said the situation was worsened by former Conservative administrations leaving what they called a "black hole" in the public finances, due to heavy borrowing to offset the hits from the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Starmer has tried to talk up his government's achievements - improving working conditions, reducing health service waiting lists and overseeing an economic environment in which interest rates could be cut.
But despite several resets, a former aide said Starmer's approach had still failed to offer "a destination" from which voters could understand or make sense of his decisions.
Instead, many voters cannot see beyond gaffes over donations, policy U-turns and the appointment of Labour veteran Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador despite his known connections to the late convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
BLAME GAME SET IN
The frustration inside his Downing Street office has become more palpable, though some aides blame what they call a hostile right-wing media.
He has lost some of his closest advisers, including his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney over the Mandelson scandal, and after sacking the top official at the foreign office his relationship with Britain's civil service has soured.
Starmer has done better on the international stage.
On Russia's war against Ukraine, he has been praised by some other European leaders for helping to spearhead the "coalition of the willing" of nations ready to help in the event of a peace deal. Alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, he has also tried to spearhead talks on reopening the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran conflict.
Initially there was some success, too, in winning round U.S. President Donald Trump - offering him a second state visit to Britain and praising his efforts to bring peace in Ukraine and an end to other conflicts.
But that was soon replaced by a torrent of jibes against him from the U.S. leader, who said he was "no Winston Churchill" after Starmer refused to draw Britain into the war on Iran.
Domestically his tenure has seen a fracturing of Britain's traditional two-party system, with populist insurgents Reform gaining a strong foothold across the nation, while on the left the Greens have also advanced.
While Labour membership numbers have plummeted, Reform's have risen, with more than 270,000 people signed up. It was that threat Starmer had hoped would seal support for him, telling his Labour Party in February the battle with Reform was the "fight of our lives".
Three months on, he faces a battle just to stay in that fight.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Alistair Smout; Editing by Alex Richardson)
