Starmer's stormy first year ends in crisis - now he faces a bigger battle to turn it around

43 minutes ago Share Save Henry Zeffman Chief Political Correspondent Leela Padmanabhan BBC News Share Save

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By the time polls closed at 10pm on 4 July 2024, the Labour Party knew they were likely to return to government - even if they could not quite bring themselves to believe it. For Sir Keir Starmer, reminiscing 10 months later in an interview with me, it was an "incredible moment". Instantly, he said, he was "conscious of the sense of responsibility". And yes, he confessed, a little annoyed that his landslide victory was not quite as big as Sir Tony Blair's had been in 1997. "I'm hugely competitive," the prime minister said. "Whether it's on the football pitch, whether it is in politics or any other aspect of life." Sir Keir watched the exit poll with a small group of advisers as well as his wife, Victoria, and his two teenaged children. Even in that moment of unsurpassable accomplishment, this deeply private prime minister was caught between the jubilation of his aides and the more complex reaction of his children, who knew their lives were about to change forever. Looking back, the prime minister said, he would tell himself: "Don't watch it with your family - because it did have a big impact on my family, and I could see that in my children."

AFP via Getty Images The prime minister has said that winning the election "did have a big impact on my family"

It's important to remember how sunny the mood in the Labour Party was at that moment - because the weather then turned stormy with remarkable speed. As the prime minister marks a year in office next week - which he will spend grappling with crises at home and abroad - British politics finds itself at an inflection point, where none of the old rules can be taken for granted. So, why exactly was Sir Keir's political honeymoon so short-lived? And can he turn things around?

Where Sir Keir's difficulties began

Many members of the new cabinet had never been to Downing Street until they walked up to the famous black door on 5 July to be appointed. Why would they have been? The 14 turbulent years of opposition for the Labour Party meant that few had any experience of government. This was a deficiency of which Sir Keir and his team were acutely aware. As the leader of the opposition, he had spent significant time in 'Privy Council' - that's to say, confidential, meetings with civil servants to understand what was happening in Ukraine and the Middle East.

He also sought knowledge from the White House. Jake Sullivan, then US President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser, told me that he spoke to the future prime minister "every couple of months" to help him "make sense of what was happening". "I shared with him our perspective on events in the Middle East, as well as in Ukraine and in other parts of the world," says Sullivan. "I thought he asked trenchant, focused, sharp questions. I thought he was on point. "I thought he got to the heart of the matter, the larger issue of where all of these things were going and what was driving them. I was impressed with him."

Getty Images The sunny mood in the Labour Party turned stormy with remarkable speed

Domestic preparations were not as smooth. For some, especially on the left of the Labour Party, this government's difficulties began with an over-cautious election campaign. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the trade union Unite, told me that "everyday people [were] looking for change with a big C. They were not looking for managerialism". It's a criticism with which Pat McFadden, a senior cabinet minister, having run the campaign, is wearily familiar. "We had tried other strategies to varying degrees in 2015, 2017, 2019, many other campaigns previously - and they'd lost. "I had one job. To win."

Breaking away from Corbynism

Having made his name as a prominent member of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet, Sir Keir won the party leadership in 2020 offering Labour members a kind of Corbynism without Corbyn. But before long he broke decisively with his predecessor. In the campaign this meant not a long list of promises, but a careful approach. Reassurance was the order of the day: at the campaign's heart, a focus on what Labour wouldn't do: no increase in income tax, national insurance or VAT.

Getty Images Sir Keir won the party leadership offering a form of Corbynism, but then broke decisively with his predecessor

Yet a big part of preparing for government was not just the question of what this government would do, but how it would drive the government system. For that, Sir Keir turned to Sue Gray. Having led the Partygate investigation into Boris Johnson, Gray was already unusually high-profile for an impartial civil servant. Her close colleagues were stunned when in 2023 she agreed to take up a party political role as Sir Keir's chief of staff. "It was a source of enormous controversy within the civil service," says Simon Case, who until a few months ago as cabinet secretary was head of the civil service. Sue Gray's task was to use her decades of experience of the Whitehall machine to bring order to Sir Keir's longstanding team. She started work in September 2023, and the grumblings about her work began to reach me weeks, or perhaps even days, later. Those in the team she joined had expected her to bring organisational clarity. Tensions came when she involved herself in political questions too.

Getty Images Sue Gray's close colleagues were stunned when she agreed to take up a party political role as the prime minister's chief of staff

Gray also deliberately re-prioritised the voices of elected politicians in the shadow cabinet over unelected advisers. Questions about what exactly her role should be were never quite resolved, in part because Rishi Sunak called the general election sooner than Labour had expected. Gray spent the campaign in a separate office from the main team, working with a small group on plans for the early days in government. Yet those back in Labour HQ fretted that, from what little they gleaned, that work was inadequate. A few days before the election those rumours reached me. I WhatsApped a confidant of Sir Keir to ask what they had heard of the preparation for government. "Don't ask," came the reply. "I am too worried to discuss it."

A lack of decisive direction

What is unquestionable is that any prime minister would have struggled with the backdrop Sir Keir inherited. Simon Case described to me how, on 5 July just after Sir Keir had made his first speech on the steps of No 10, he had thwacked a sleepless new prime minister with "the heavy mallet of reality". "I don't think there are many incoming prime ministers who'd faced such challenging circumstances," he said, referring to both the country's economic situation and wars around the world. The King's Speech on 17 July unveiled a substantial programme, making good on manifesto promises: rail nationalisation, planning reform, clean energy investment. But those hoping for a rabbit out of the hat, a defining surprise, were disappointed.

Getty Images Chancellor Rachel Reeves's announced on 29 July that she would means-test the winter fuel payment

In so many crucial areas — social care, child poverty, industrial strategy — the government's instinct was to launch reviews and consultations, rather than to declare a decisive direction. As cabinet secretary, Case could see what was happening — or not happening — across the whole of government. "There were some elements where not enough thinking had been done," he said. "There were areas where, sitting in the centre of government, early in a new regime, the prime minister and his team, including me as his sort of core team, knew what we wanted to do, but we weren't communicating that effectively across all of government." Not just communication within government: for us journalists there were days in that early period where it was utterly unclear what this new government wanted its story to be. That made those early announcements, which did come, stand out even more: none more so than Chancellor Rachel Reeves's announcement on 29 July that she would means-test the winter fuel payment. It came in a speech primarily about the government's parlous economic inheritance. That is not what it is remembered for.

Getty Images Some in government admit that they expected a positive response to Reeves's radical frankness

Some in government admit that they expected a positive response to Reeves's radical frankness about what the government could and could not afford to do. Yet it sat in isolation - a symbol of this new government's economic priorities, with the Budget still three months away. Louise Haigh, then the transport secretary, remembered: "It came so early and it hung on its own as such a defining policy for so long that in so many voters' minds now, that is the first thing they think about when they think about this Labour government and what it wants to do and the kinds of decisions it wants to make." The policy lasted precisely one winter. Sir Keir and his chancellor have argued in recent weeks that they were able to change course because of a stabilising economy. McFadden was more direct about the U-turn. "If I'm being honest, I think the reaction to it since the decision was announced was probably stronger than we thought," he admits.

'Two-tier Keir' and his first UK crisis

At the same time the chancellor stood up to announce the winter fuel cuts, news was unfolding of a horrific attack in Southport. Misinformation about who had carried out the attack fuelled the first mass riots in this country since 2011, when Sir Keir had been the director of public prosecutions. Given the nature of the crisis, the prime minister was well placed to respond. "As a first crisis, it was dealing with a bit of the machinery of government that he instinctively understood - policing, courts, prisons," Case says.

Getty Images Sir Keir was well placed to respond to the riots that swept across the UK last summer

Sir Keir's response was practical and pragmatic — making the judicial system flow faster meant that by mid-August at least 200 rioters had already been sentenced, most jailed with an average term of two years. But in a way that was not quite clear at the time, the riots spawned what has become one of the defining attacks on the prime minister from the right: that of 'two-tier Keir'. The idea that some rioters were treated more harshly than other kinds of protesters had been morphed over time into a broader accusation about who and what the prime minister stood for. Sir Keir had cancelled his family holiday to deal with the riots. Exhausted, he ended the summer dealing with questions about his personal integrity in what became known as 'freebiegate'.

Most of the gifts for which he was being criticised - clothing, glasses, concert tickets - had been accepted before the election but Sir Keir was prime minister now. Case told me there was a "naivety" about the greater scrutiny that came with leading the country. Perhaps more than that, there was a naivety in No 10 about how Sir Keir was seen. Here was a man elected in large part because of a crisis of trust in politics. He had presented himself as different. Telling voters that he had followed the rules was to miss the point — they thought the rules themselves were bust.

The political price of 'dispensing with' Gray

By the winter of 2024, the sense of a government failing to get a grip of itself or a handle on the public mood, had grown. A chorus of off-the-record criticism, much of it strikingly personal, threatened to overwhelm the government. There were personal ambitions and tensions at play, but more and more insiders - some of them fans of Gray initially - were telling me that the way in which Sir Keir's chief of staff was running government was structurally flawed, with the system simply not working properly. Gray announced in early October that she had resigned because she risked becoming a "distraction". In reality, Sir Keir had sacked her after some of his closest aides warned him he risked a mutiny if he did not. Sue Gray was approached both for an interview and for her response to her critics but declined.

Getty Images Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said she felt "desperately sorry" for Sue Gray

To the end she retained some supporters in the cabinet including Louise Haigh. "I felt desperately sorry for her," she says. "It was just a really, really cruel way to treat someone who'd already been so traduced by the Tories - and then [was] traduced by our side as well." Sir Keir appointed Gray. He empowered Gray. And he dispensed with Gray. This was the prime minister correcting his own mistakes - an episode which came at a high political price.

A bridge on the world stage

Yet on the world stage the prime minister continued to thrive, winning praise across political divides in the UK and abroad. Jake Sullivan, Biden's adviser, was impressed by Sir Keir's handling of US President Donald Trump, describing the Oval Office meeting where the prime minister brandished an invitation from the King as "the best I've seen in terms of a leader in these early weeks going to sit down with the current president". It's an irony that it is Sir Keir, who made his reputation trying to thwart Brexit, who has found for the UK its most defined diplomatic role of the post-Brexit era — close to the US, closer than before to Europe, at the fore of the pro-Ukraine alliance, striking trade deals with India and others.

Getty Images Many praised Sir Keir's handling of US President Donald Trump at the start of the year

And it has provided him with something more elusive too: a story — a narrative of a confident, pragmatic leader stepping up on the world stage, acting as a bridge between other countries in fraught times. The risk, brought into sharp relief during the Israel-Iran conflict in recent days, is that Trump is too unpredictable for such a role to be a stable one. The international arena has sharpened Sir Keir's choices domestically as well. Even while making welfare cuts that have displeased so many in his party, the prime minister has a clearer and more joined-up argument about prioritising security in all its forms: through work, through economic prudence, through defence of the realm. And yet, for plenty of voters Sir Keir has found definition to his government's direction too late. Labour's poor performance last month in the local elections plus defeat at the Runcorn and Helsby by-election were a blow to Sir Keir and his team.

Reuters Starmer arrives for the Nato summit on 25 June, the same week he plunged into his gravest political crisis yet on the home front

It's far from unheard of for a governing party to lose a by-election, but to lose it to Reform UK on the same night that Nigel Farage's party hoovered up councils across England made this a distinctively new political moment. Two days afterwards, Paul Ovenden, Sir Keir's strategy director, circulated a memo to Downing Street aides, which I've obtained. It called for a "relentless focus on the new centre ground in British politics". The crucial swing voters, Ovenden wrote, "are the middle-age, working class, economically squeezed voters that we persuaded in the 2024 election campaign. Many of them voted for us in 2024 thinking we would fix the cost of living, fix the NHS, and reduce migration… we need to become more ruthless in pursuing those outcomes". For more than 100 of Starmer's own MPs, including many of those elected for the first time in that landslide a year ago, the main priority was ruthlessly dismantling the government's welfare reforms - plunging the prime minister as he approaches his first anniversary into his gravest political crisis yet. The stakes were beyond high. For the prime minister to have backed down to avoid defeat on this so soon after the winter fuel reversal raises questions about his ability to get his way on plenty else besides. So, if this first year has done anything, it has clarified the stakes. This is not just a prime minister and a Labour Party hoping to win a second term. They are trying to prove to a tetchy and volatile country that not only do they get their frustration with politics, but that they can fix it too. None of that will be possible when profound policy disagreements are on public display. Starmer's Stormy Year: A year on from the landslide election win, the BBC's Henry Zeffman talks to insiders about the challenges Labour has faced in government (BBC Radio 4, from 30 June 2025) Top picture credit: PA and Getty Images

Mission Impossible theme composer, Lalo Schifrin, dies at 93

Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style

He was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise.

Schifrin was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his name.

The Argentine musician's son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC's US partner CBS.

The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family announced.

Schifrin's family said he "passed peacefully" surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of support.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician's "genius" compositions which "built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse".

"We'll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense," it said in a post on X.

The prolific artist - a composer, pianist and conductor - was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry.

In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his "unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring".

When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him "a lifetime of joy and creativity" and the award was "a culmination of a dream".

"It is a Mission: Accomplished," he said at the time.

Born into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz - later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.

After a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and pop.

His most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject "a little humour, lightness" to form a theme "that didn't take itself too seriously".

The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.

Beaver activists claim they are 'doing God's work'

1 hour ago Share Save Charlotte Cox BBC South West Investigations Share Save

Contributor A beaver takes its first steps into the wild, picture from an unlicensed release

Under cover of darkness, a nocturnal creature emerges from a crate and takes its first tentative steps into a new life in the wild. "It is just essentially God's work. We're undoing the damage of hundreds of years ago and bringing back these extraordinary animals," claimed Ben, who spoke to the BBC on the condition of anonymity. He is part of an underground network where members risk arrest, jail and hefty fines by carrying out covert and unlicensed releases of beavers. It is an offence to release beavers into the wild without a licence and a spokesperson for the National Farmers Union (NFU) said it was "irresponsible" and "really worrying".

There is now a legal route in the UK for the species to be reintroduced. Despite this and the risks of acting without licences, activists whose names have been changed were unrepentant and said they were taking action themselves because the legal option was "too bureaucratic". "It feels like they're back in their proper place," Ben said. Like the nocturnal creatures at the heart of their cause, the group he belongs to operates under the cover of darkness. He said secrecy was key in everything from where other parts of the network got the animals - "we really don't need to know" - to the clandestine releases. "You don't want to be caught with a box of beavers in the boot so you have to be quite quick," Ben said. "You open the door, do it and drive away. They are instantly much happier in the water."

Poppy Sherborne said illegal species releases were irresponsible

However, the NFU said concerns over unlicensed releases included flooding, tree-gnawing and damage to land and crops. NFU countryside advisor Poppy Sherborne said illegal releases were "irresponsible". "They are really worrying because there has been no process put in place to check that release should be happening," she said. "There's no support for farmers who could be impacted by that release if it's not happened in the right way." She said the "rigorous" legal process should be followed. When challenged over his actions, Ben said: "I'm unfamiliar with species of animals or species of wildlife, plants or animal that would be badly affected by the presence of beavers... they can reduce risk of flooding, mitigate the damage that a drought can bring. They can help to clean up water. "What's not to like about this?"

Det Insp Mark Harrison, of the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which supports wildlife crime enforcement across the UK, said he loved nature and visiting rewilding locations but "it has to be done properly". He said although there had been prosecutions for illegal species release in England, none had applied to beavers. "The reason for that is because we've got no evidence," he said, describing the covert nature of releases and the fact beavers could be on site for long periods before they were spotted. "You commit an offence so there could be consequences for you but you've also got to think about the impact on the animal so there could be welfare issues," he said. "You could be reintroducing other diseases and parasites." Marie, who is also part of the network, said being part of beaver releases was "one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed". Asked about the difficulties beavers could cause for farmers and landowners, she added: "I can understand why it is scary to some people... but there are so many ways that you can maintain control. "If the landowner wants to protect particular trees, you can make sure that beavers don't fell an individual tree. "You can control the water level even and I think beavers can actually bring benefits to farmland too."

PA Media Ben said he had released beavers without a licence and believed in the good they could do for biodiversity

Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago for their meat, furry water-resistant pelts and a substance they secrete called castoreum - used in food, medicine and perfume. For a long time, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 regulated the release of "non-native" species, including beavers. It allowed for licensed releases of beavers - imported from countries including Germany and Norway - into enclosures, of which there are 52 in England, according to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). But in 2013, video evidence emerged of a wild beaver with young on the River Otter, near Ottery St Mary, Devon. After public pressure, the population became central to the River Otter Beaver Trial, which resulted in the 15 families being given licensed status. Their descendants are among upwards of 600 beavers currently roaming free in England, according to Natural England; the majority through unlicensed releases or escapes. The Beaver Trust's figure is higher; its "educated estimate" is that there are 1,000 wild beavers in England, mostly in the South West, with a total of 3,500 in England, Wales and Scotland. In 2022, Eurasian beavers were recognised as a protected species in England, making it illegal to capture, kill, injure or disturb them. In February 2025, a licensing scheme overseen by Natural England was introduced - without which it is still illegal to introduce or move beavers.

Lauren Jasper, beaver officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said beavers could help change the landscape to help other wildlife

Natural England is now considering about 50 expressions of interest. Applicants will have to demonstrate clear benefits and where risks can be "avoided, mitigated or managed". Cornwall Wildlife Trust applied to release beavers on a site near Helman Tor as part of a planned £800,000 10-year project. During the two-year preparation of its application, a pair turned up at the site in what the trust believes was an unlicensed release. "We have seen this site be absolutely transformed," beaver officer Lauren Jasper said. "They've created a couple of dams. In doing so, this is holding back water and it's slowing the flow and it's created this amazing wetland area that's now brimming with wildlife." The trust said its project work would include providing advice on learning to co-exist with the species again and added it did not support unlicensed release.

Derek Gow has water buffalo at his site in Devon, as well as lynx and other species

Other rewilding efforts - both legal and illegal - causing debate include sea eagles, lynx, wolves, elk, and even some species of butterfly, while sightings of wild boar on Dartmoor sparked division. Devon farmer and conservationist Derek Gow said he believed they had been released by illegal rewilders. "I wouldn't imagine very many people are involved in doing this but the effect they've had, especially when it comes to beavers, has been profound," he said. Mr Gow, who is working to rewild 150 acres of his own land near Launceston, said he had also legally reintroduced species including beavers, dormice, 25,000 water voles and glow-worms.

Iain Russell A wild boar seen roaming free on Dartmoor, suspected to be the work of rewilders

He said biodiversity in England was at "rock bottom" and the licensing system was fraught with "complex and medieval rules" and an obligation to "pay for the next 10 years". "What they are trying to do is shut the stable door long after the horse, the horse's grandmother and the horses' relatives have crossed the mountain range to emerge free on the other side," he said. Defra said unlicensed releases could "reduce the likelihood of success of beaver reintroductions". It said detailed and comprehensive licensing applications were important to "achieve a measured pace of reintroduction and prioritise areas where beavers can thrive without causing significant conflicts with people, agriculture and infrastructure".

Signs of the beavers' handiwork are clear to see, says Lauren Jasper from Cornwall Wildlife Trust

But rewilder Ben, who said the licensing process was a step in the right direction, said he thought there "may well be a requirement" to continue releasing the anmals illegally. "We are in a national emergency of climate and biodiversity loss," he said, adding rewilding beavers was being treated as "yet another bureaucratic exercise". "It's not good enough for beavers, and it's not good enough for the people of this country," he said. Det Insp Harrison said "coexistence" was needed and a lot of wildlife crime issues were "because we don't know how to live with these animals anymore". He said: "It brings about a lot of conflict and usually it's human-human conflict because of an animal."

Who Do You Think You Are?

Diane Morgan puts aside her historian persona to seek the truth about her family history

58 mins

Australia ground out an 82-run lead with six wickets remaining in their second innings after another dramatic day in the first Test against West Indies in Bridgetown.

The tourists, having posted just 180 on Wednesday, trailed by 10 runs when West Indies made 190 in their first innings.

There then looked to be trouble for Australia when they lost early wickets batting second time around and stumbled to 65-4, before the fifth-wicket pair of Travis Head and Beau Webster steered the team to stumps at the end of day two.

Head faced 37 balls for his 13 not out, while Webster scored more briskly, reaching 19 in just 24 deliveries, as they crucially stayed together for eight testing overs.

Australia will begin day three on 92-4, looking for Head and Webster to propel them towards a healthy lead.

After 14 wickets fell on day one, hosts West Indies resumed their first innings on 57-4 at the start of Thursday's play and soon lost Brandon King, bowled by Josh Hazlewood for 26.

Wicketkeeper Shai Hope joined captain Roston Chase in the middle and the pair put on 67 before the latter was controversially given out lbw to Pat Cummins for 44 despite appearing to possibly edge the ball on to his pads.

West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals before being bowled out, with a late Alzarri Joseph flurry handing them a 10-run lead. Hope top-scored with 48.