A top polling guru has delivered a devastating verdict on ‘bland’ Sir Keir Starmer as he insisted the Scottish Labour leader was right to call for the Prime Minister to quit.
Sir Keir has faced his worst week in office so far after Anas Sarwar demanded he resign in the wake of the Peter Mandelson scandal.
Mr Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, demanded a change of PM in Downing Street as he hit out at ‘too many mistakes’ during Sir Keir’s 18-month premiership.
Mr Sarwar’s intervention failed to spark a wider move against the PM, as senior Cabinet ministers rallied round Sir Keir to grant him a stay of execution.
But Professor Sir John Curtice, one of the UK’s leading polling experts, said it was a rational move for Mr Sarwar to distance himself from Sir Keir.
He said British voters viewed Sir Keir as ‘bland’, ‘boring’, ‘uncharismatic’ and without a ‘sense of direction’ or ‘sense of vision’.
Ahead of Scottish Parliament elections in May, Sir John warned Scottish Labour is facing a ‘car crash’ due to the unpopularity of Sir Keir’s administration at Westminster.
He suggested Mr Sarwar was ‘somebody who had come to realise he was sitting in a car that was about to crash at the end of a cul-de-sac’.
A top polling guru has delivered a devastating verdict on ‘bland’ Sir Keir Starmer as he insisted the Scottish Labour leader was right to call for the Prime Minister to quit
Sir Keir has faced his worst week in office so far after Anas Sarwar demanded he resign in the wake of the Peter Mandelson scandal
Professor Sir John Curtice, one of the UK’s leading polling experts, said it was a rational move for Mr Sarwar to distance himself from Sir Keir
Asked why Sir Keir was so unpopular with voters, Sir John told ITV’s Peston show: ‘All of our leaders are unpopular because all of our parties are unpopular.
‘We have to remember we’ve moved in British politics from an era in which two parties dominated…
‘… But, beyond that, the problem that people say – it’s the same problem as most political commentators say – they don’t know what he stands for.
‘When you get those word clouds, the words that come out are ‘bland’ and ‘boring’.
‘He doesn’t convey a sense of direction, he doesn’t convey a sense of vision, and frankly doesn’t have much in way of charisma.
‘The various U-turns of the Government, some of which have been more damaging that others – the one that everyone still remembers is the winter fuel allowance – these have gradually eroded people’s confidence in the ability of this Government.’
Asked if it was rational for Mr Sarwar to distance himself from Sir Keir, the academic added: ‘Yes, from his point of view, yes.
‘You’re looking at somebody who had come to realise he was sitting in a car that was about to crash at the end of a cul-de-sac.
‘The cause of that is the fact the UK Government is unpopular. Not just with people in Scotland in general, it is unpopular with the people who voted for Labour in Scotland back in July 2024.
‘The one thing he still had to hand was the steering wheel in front of him, he’s just decided to twist the steering wheel.
‘He didn’t know where the car was going, he just had to hope that maybe the car might stop in a rather softer place than the crash barrier towards which it was heading.
‘But the truth is, whether or not he’s ended up in a better place… it’s proving very, very difficult for the Labour Party in Scotland to distance itself from the perceived record of the UK Labour Government.’
Sir John, of Strathclyde University, continued: ‘Even the people who voted Labour in Scotland in 2024 do not think the UK Labour Government is doing a good job – that is very, very difficult to escape from.’