Starmer has made 15 U-turns in 19 months. But which is his most embarrassing?

It was a little over 18 months ago that Keir Starmer made his first speech as Prime Minister. Outside the door of Downing Street, he promised the nation that he would be a politician who stood “for stability and moderation”. Yet while cabinet colleagues boasted of how “the adults are back in the room”, a series of missteps, blunders and backbench revolts forced an endless series of U-turns.

As Starmer’s Chagos bill descends into farce amid confusion over whether the process of give away the islands to Mauritius has been paused, here are the 15 U-turns that the Prime Minister has managed to tuck in to just 19 months in Downing Street.

October 2024: Debt definition

Before the election Rachel Reeves had promised that she would not “fiddle” the fiscal rules – but in her first Budget she did exactly that. She changed Britain’s debt rules, claiming the move would unlock up to £50bn of additional headroom for investment in infrastructure. But it risked, in the words of then shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt, “punish[ing] families with mortgages”.

Embarrassment factor: 2/5

December 2024: WASPI women

In December 2024, the Government said it would not be compensating millions of women who lost out through the changes to the state pension age. But in opposition, Sir Keir Starmer had backed the so-called “WASPI” campaigners – Women Against State Pension Inequality. The Prime Minister said their demands were unaffordable, insisting: “I have to take into account whether it’s right at the moment to impose further burden on the taxpayer, which is what it would be.”

Embarrassment factor: 3/5

April 2025: Trans rights

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the legal definition of a woman in April 2025, Starmer appeared to change his previous stance on trans rights. In opposition, he claimed that “a woman is a female adult, and in addition to that, trans women are women, and that is not just my view, that is actually the law”. But after years of awkward questions and following the ruling, he simply said “a woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear”.

Embarrassment factor: 4/5

June 2025: Winter fuel allowance

In Sir Keir’s first month in charge, Labour announced that the winter fuel payment (worth up to £300) would only be given to those in receipt of pension credits or means-tested benefits. Yet in June last year, the Government was forced to water down the policy by making nine million pensioners eligible, rather than 1.5 million in the winter of 2024/25.

Embarrassment factor: 3/5

June 2025: Grooming gangs

In January, Sir Keir accused those calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs of “jumping on a bandwagon” and “amplifying” the demands of the far right. But in June, after months of ministers insisting such a probe was not needed, he was forced to concede to demands from Kemi Badenoch and sexual abuse survivors.

Embarrassment factor: 5/5

July 2025: Welfare reform

There are arguably two phases to Starmer’s premiership: before the summer welfare revolt and after it. Concerned about the runaway cost of Britain’s benefits bill, the Prime Minister hoped to reform welfare to save £5bn a year. But after a backbench rebellion, in which more than 100 of Starmer’s own MPs signed a critical motion, Labour was forced to water down the reforms at a price-tag of £2.5bn. The more damaging cost came to Starmer’s own standing, with critics carping that he was now “in office but not in power”.

Embarrassment factor: 5/5

November 2025: Two-child benefit cap

In opposition, Labour made much of their fiscal credentials. Starmer promised to keep the two-child benefit cap and even suspended a handful of his own MPs who backed lifting it in July 2024. But after a bruising deputy leadership race, in which the sacked Lucy Powell comfortably trounced Number 10’s pick Bridget Phillipson, the Government confirmed in its Budget that the cap would be scrapped – much to Labour MPs’ delight.

Embarrassment factor: 3/5

November 2025: Income tax rises

In her 2024 Budget, after hiking taxes by £35bn, Rachel Reeves suggested that further freezes to income tax thresholds would constitute a breach of Labour’s manifesto. But 13 months on, the Chancellor froze the thresholds.

Embarrassment factor: 4/5

December 2025 – Workers’ rights

Employment rights were the cornerstone demand of the trade union movement, longtime bankrollers of Starmer’s party. Angela Rayner’s flagship Employment Rights Bill initially included a pledge to allow employees to sue for unfair dismissal from the first day of their employment. But this part of the bill was later removed – to the fury of the union barons.

Embarrassment factor: 4/5

December 2025: Family farm tax

One of Rachel Reeves’ original sins in her very first Budget was the decision to impose a 20 per cent inheritance tax on agricultural assets over £1m from April 2026. It prompted an almighty backlash from farmers, who warned of the devastation it would pose to family farms. After 14 months of sustained pressure – in which Keir Starmer was publicly pilloried by MPs for his lack of compassion – the Government threw in the towel shortly before Christmas. The threshold is now £2.5m.

Embarrassment factor: 4/5

January 2026: Digital ID

To much fanfare in September, Keir Starmer had grandly announced his latest scheme to “stop the boats”: compulsory digital ID cards. But after an almighty backlash from opposition parties and civil liberties’ groups, the Prime Minister was forced to throw in the towel and admit that the scheme would now become voluntary instead.

Embarrassment factor: 3/5

January 2026: Pubs business rates rise

After an outcry from the beleaguered hospitality sector, Rachel Reeves was forced to water down her imposition of higher costs on struggling pubs, which The Telegraph is campaigning to save. The Chancellor offered pubs and music venues in England an emergency package of a 15 per cent discount on their business rates bills, starting from April, with no increases planned for two years. It came after a series of Labour MPs were banned from their local pubs.

Embarrassment factor: 3/5

January 2026: Church funding

Labour granted funding to churches, cathedrals and chapels that it previously decided to cut. The move followed warnings by the National Churches’ Trust that the Government had left “potentially hundreds of churches in the lurch”, with the Tories pledging to reverse the plans if they were elected.

Embarrassment factor: 2/5

January 2026: ‘Name and shame’ offenders

David Lammy, the Justice Secretary, abandoned his plans to “name and shame” offenders who are given community sentences. He proposed that criminals convicted of minor offences would have their cases publicised by the Probation Service, with their names and photos published in local media. But after criticism by probation chiefs and charities, Lammy duly ditched plans for the “modern-day version of medieval stocks”.

Embarrassment factor: 2/5

February 2026: Local elections

Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, withdrew his decision to postpone the council elections of 30 local councils ahead of a legal challenge by Reform UK, and following a campaign by The Telegraph against the delaying of votes. It represented less a tactical retreat and more a complete surrender, which blew a £60m hole in Whitehall finances and handed Nigel Farage’s party the chance to make even greater victories in the May local elections.

Embarrassment factor: 4/5

[Source: Daily Telegraph]