Keir Starmer outlasts Liz Truss in more difficult times

Keir Starmer is reaching a significant milestone today – but there will be no champagne corks popping at 10 Downing Street to celebrate.

It is now 50 days since the Labour leader became Prime Minister, meaning he has officially been in office longer than Liz Truss.

Defeating the woman who was outlasted by a head of lettuce may not be a great achievement, but with big trouble on the horizon, Starmer would be wise to take every victory he can get.

In a month, Labour will meet for its annual conference in Liverpool for the first time as a governing party since 2009.

But alongside the understandable cheers, there will also be simmering discontent among those who are less than impressed with Starmer's first weeks in office.

“The two-child limit will be a big issue at the conference and we expect there will be trouble over it,” a senior insider at 10 Downing Street told HuffPost UK.

“There will be debates about this in the plenary and many people will make it clear that they are dissatisfied with the government’s stance.”

Starmer made it clear long before the election that repealing Tory-era policies banning families from claiming Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit for their third or subsequent children was not on his agenda.

Nevertheless, less than three weeks after the election, the Prime Minister's first rebellion occurred in the House of Commons, when seven Labour MPs voted together with the SNP to abolish the tax cap.

Among the rebels, all of whom were suspended for six months, was former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

He told HuffPost UK: “Four million children are currently living in poverty, some of them classified as destitute. There is a child poverty emergency in this country.”

“Not abolishing the two-child limit or delaying its abolition is a long way from fulfilling the promise of change that was the central election slogan.”

But the most controversial decision of the new government so far – and the one with the greatest impact on the election – was Rachel Reeves' announcement that the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners would no longer be a universal benefit.

Instead, the £200 (£300 for those over 80) will only go to pensioners who are also entitled to a pension supplement, meaning millions of people will now have to go without.

Government sources said: “Nobody wants to have to means test the Winter Fuel Allowance. That's why we have protected the pensioners who need it most. It was a really difficult decision that we had to take to get the public finances back in order after 14 years of chaos. It won't be the last.”

The potential consequences of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's decision were particularly clear on Friday morning when the energy regulator Ofgem increased the cap on energy prices by 10%, adding another £12 a month to the average electricity bill.

More than 400,000 people have so far signed an Age UK petition calling for the law to be reinstated, a clear sign of the strength of feeling among a section of the public that – worryingly for Starmer – always votes when elections are on the line.

In addition, Labour found time to become embroiled in a nepotism dispute in which several of the party's supporters were pushed into lucrative positions in the public sector.

Government insiders insist no rules were broken. Hannah White of the Institute for Government said the Labour Party had “made an early mistake in trying to circumvent established recruitment practices”.

In a blog, she explained: “The established channels protect the public service from politicisation and ministers from the appearance of inappropriate behaviour, particularly when it comes to donations in kind or money.”

“This approach has achieved none of these objectives, which is all the more regrettable given the emphasis Keir Starmer placed on ethics and decency during the election campaign.”

The only unforeseen event that has marked Starmer's time in office so far has, of course, been the riots that broke out after three young girls were killed while attending a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport.

Misinformation about the suspected killer spread on the internet – amplified by people like Nigel Farage – led to a wave of violence and unrest in England and Northern Ireland.

For Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, the crisis was almost tailor-made, and the public appears to approve of his handling of it.

He blamed “far-right violence” for the unrest and promised swift justice to those involved – an instruction that led to long prison sentences for some of them.

“The prime minister has made it very clear that the best way to end the unrest is to make people think twice about the consequences,” a government source said.

“The Tories went from calling him a left-wing lawyer to accusing him of being too tough on law and order. While they hesitated and were too afraid of angering Nigel Farage, the government delivered justice.”

HuffPost UK reported last week that polling by More in Common showed that voters' overall approval of the Prime Minister's response had increased since the early days of the unrest.

A separate poll by Savanta, provided exclusively to HuffPost UK, shows that while Starmer remains the country's most popular politician, it suggests his post-election honeymoon is coming to an end.

His net popularity is now at +2, down from a high of +15 at the end of July.

However, he is still well ahead of Rishi Sunak (-27) and Farage (-21).

Chris Hopkins, head of political research at Savanta, said: “Starmer’s first 50 days in office have been overshadowed and shaped by his response to the social unrest that swept the UK this summer.

“Our research suggests that the public broadly believe the Prime Minister has handled the situation well and that they agree with his approach, including his priority of locking up offenders as quickly as possible.

“However, our results suggest that Starmer's post-election shine has now faded. His popularity ratings returned to normal levels in August, but he is still the most popular politician in Britain.

“So all in all, Starmer has handled his difficult first summer quite well, even if it doesn't look like his autumn will be any easier.”