Congratulations, Liz Truss – you're no longer Britain's worst prime minister

Telegraph

02-07-2025

The grown-ups are back in the room. That was the breezy consensus among liberal observers, this time last year, as they looked forward to Sir Keir Starmer ushering in a glorious new era of political stability, integrity and competence.
'No more psychodramas and scandals,' chirped the former MP Anna Soubry, who quit the Tories in 2019 over her loathing of Brexit. Jon Sopel, of the centrist dad podcast The News Agents, felt it apt that 'as Starmer drives to Downing Street the sun comes out'. Ian Dunt, of the anti-Tory podcast Oh God, What Now?, was pleased to report: 'Power suits Starmer, as expected. Looks comfortable, relaxed, in charge.' Meanwhile, Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News warned his fellow journalists that from now on, they would have to focus on policy rather than in-fighting and chaos – because 'we now have a Government with a massive majority, widespread agreement and no likelihood of massive instability any time soon'.
Perhaps the giddiest response to last July's election, however, came in the Metro, which dubbed Sir Keir 'the new Downing Street Daddy' – because, apparently, everyone on TikTok was excitedly discussing whether he was 'our hottest prime minister in history'. Arguments in support of this thesis included, 'He's objectively handsome', 'He cares', and, believe it or not, 'His personality'.
Ah, what heady days those were. And how tragically, gibberingly delusional they seem today.
Let's look at the state of play, one year into the Starmer disasterclass. This week, to avert a humiliating rebellion over his Welfare Bill by Labour MPs who were talking openly about removing him as their leader, Sir Keir has had to perform a U-turn so farcical that, instead of cutting spending on benefits, he's going to end up increasing it by £300 million. Yes, despite having a vast working majority of 165, he was incapable of winning a crucial vote on a flagship Bill without junking practically everything except its title. The man now has about as much authority over the Commons as the dust bunnies beneath the Speaker's chair.
Meanwhile, we learn that, in the first half of this year, 20,000 migrants arrived in Britain via small boats – beating all previous records. Quite an achievement for a man elected on a promise to 'smash the gangs', and who, only last month, was boasting to the prime minister of Italy about 'the UK's world-leading work on people-smuggling sanctions'.
Did he seriously mean that? Frankly, it's hard to be sure what he means about anything. Certainly not grooming gangs (one minute, dismissing calls for a national inquiry as a 'far-Right bandwagon' – the next, sheepishly clambering aboard it himself). Or the winter fuel allowance (one minute, totally unsustainable; the next, comfortably affordable). Or, perhaps most pathetically, mass immigration. Mere weeks ago, he sternly warned us that it risks turning Britain into 'an island of strangers'. Now he confesses that he 'deeply regrets' saying so. Remarkable. He's even U-turned on the one thing he actually managed to get right.
Meanwhile, no one can still believe his pledge to be responsible with the public finances, after his mind-boggling decision to pay Mauritius £30 billion of our money to take the key strategic asset of the Chagos Islands off our hands. Soon enough, though, Sir Keir will be even less trusted than he is now. Because, having failed to cut welfare spending, he will inevitably have to break his solemn vow not to raise taxes for the dwindling number of people in this country who pay more into the system than they pay out. Which will mean any faint hopes he may harbour of reviving his fortunes will die with the next Budget.
Still, let's be fair. Despite all the doom and gloom, there is one person who is unmistakably benefiting from Sir Keir's actions in office.
Congratulations, Liz Truss – you're no longer Britain's worst prime minister.
Yes, her spell in No 10 was a screaming catastrophe. But at least it was all over nice and quickly. Sir Keir's waking nightmare, by contrast, has dragged on for a whole year. And, unless his MPs have the decency to put him out of both his and our misery, it could drag on for another four.
It's almost enough to make me feel sorry for the man. Mind you, I suppose he can console himself with one small, comforting thought.