Keir Starmer has insisted he would not have done anything differently in his first five months as prime minister, despite the government’s woes.
The PM’s popularity has plummeted since he entered office on July 5 after decisions like removing winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners and the row over him accepting free clothes and glasses from a Labour donor.
Starmer was also forced to carry out a shake-up of his Downing Street operation following behind-the-scenes rows, while there has been an outcry over the decision not to compensate women who lost out when the state pension age went up.
But in his first appearance in front of senior MPs on the House of Commons liaison committee on Thursday, Starmer insisted he had no regrets.
Committee chair Meg Hillier asked him: “Is there anything that you would do differently if you were starting out now, knowing what you know?”
“No,” he replied.
The PM added: “We have had to do tough stuff, we are getting on with it and I am very pleased to be delivering from a position of power, rather than going around the division lobbies losing every night. I have had too much of that.”
Starmer also called for patience as the government tries to deliver its pledge to massively increase economic growth.
The past few days alone have seen confirmation that inflation is going up again, while GDP shrunk in September and October.
But the prime minister pointed to the increase in the national living wage, which he said was a “pay rise for the three million who are the lowest paid”.
“In addition to that, the measures that we put in place will improve living standards,” he said. “It will take some time, of course it will.
“One of the biggest mistakes, I think, in the last 14 years was the idea that everything could be fixed by Christmas. It can’t.”
Elsewhere during his 90-minute grilling, Starmer also admitted he was concerned about Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all foreign imports into the US.
He said: “Am I alive to the danger of tariffs? Yes of course. I’m against tariffs, but I’m not going to speculate as to what the incoming president might do.”
