A year after its electoral landslide, Labour is sailing without direction
Across the Channel, Labour's triumphant victory a year ago, on July 4, 2024, already seems a long way off. Confused and lacking a real vision for the country's future, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's first year has failed to satisfy many. The gradual improvement in several key indicators is not enough to deliver the promised change, according to the British press.
On the green bench of the House of Commons, the front row reserved for members of the government, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer breaks down. And sobs silently. The powerful image covers all the front pages of the national press on Thursday, July 3. “What is the source of these tears?” asks the Daily Mail, the UK's best-selling tabloid.
Rachel Reeves's entourage may have put forward "personal reasons," but it was too late, and doubts crept into the newspaper columns. "Under pressure," as The Sun suggests? On Tuesday, July 1 , she had to abandon a key part of her social welfare reform. Threatened by an unprecedented rebellion of 126 MPs from the majority, the Labour Party abandoned plans to limit the allocation of benefits to people with disabilities , a measure deemed "cruel" by her critics. Irritated by the about-face, Prime Minister Keir Starmer "refused to say in the House of Commons whether [the minister] still had his full support," notes the conservative weekly The Spectator . On July 3, the tenant of 10 Downing Street finally assured that Rachel Reeves "would be Chancellor of the Exchequer [the official title of the Minister of Finance] for many years to come."
Courrier International
