Trump demonstrated this week what it means to wield power in office. Starmer demonstrated the opposite. A weak leader is an oxymoron. And that is what Starmer has become.
In pushing his ‘big, beautiful bill’ through the Senate, Trump demonstrated his control over the Republican party. Senators felt compelled to sign off on a Bill that will add trillions to the national debt and deprive many red states of their voters’ access to Medicare. In supporting their leader, lawmakers potentially sacrificed themselves and their party in the 2026 mid-term elections.
In contrast, Starmer failed. With a massive 162 seat majority in Parliament, the Prime Minister was unable to compel his own MPs to trim £5 billion from a welfare budget that is currently estimate at £313 billion for 2024/2025 at . His MPs were not willing to risk anything for their leader or the financial stability of their country. Instead of facing down dissenters, Starmer capitulated and pulled the Bill. He has doomed his premiership.
The Chancellor delighted in delivering a Budget last October that undermines the livelihoods of already struggling family farms and millions of small business owners and grinned as she retook her seat. Some might say it was karma that she made a public display of being unable to cope when her own job was threatened and a colleague was mean to her at work.
As Reeves sat sniveling on the front bench, Bond markets tumbled. The failure to pass welfare reform saw the sharpest sell-off since Liz Truss’s mini-budget. The country is confronting a gapping fiscal hole. Markets may pull the pull the plug if the outlook does not improve. Are we expecting investors to take a blubbing, red faced Chancellor seriously, as the financial face of the world’s sixth largest economy? Belatedly, the Prime Minister announced he supported his Chancellor. Reality belies his words. Starmer and Reeves agreed on the welfare reform bill. When the going got tough, he capitulated and pulled the rug out from under his her.
Leadership takes nerve. Trump has it. Starmer does not. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Trump’s policies, he is doing what he said he would do on the campaign trail. Starmer is not. Economic growth has been sacrificed in favour of tax and spend.
Weakness and an absence of courage in one’s convictions are unappealing character traits. In a leader they are suicidal, both personally and to the country’s international credibility.
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