Oh How His Promises Fall Apart

By Zvorxes Seer

From Defeat to Downing Street

After Labour’s devastating defeat in 2019, the party turned to Keir Starmer in search of stability. On 4 April 2020, he became leader of the Labour Party with 56.2% of the vote. His message was clear: he would unite the factions, restore credibility, and make Labour electable again. Members bought into his ten solemn pledges, which promised everything from scrapping tuition fees to renationalising utilities. He looked like the cool-headed lawyer who could clean up the chaos left by Brexit and Corbynism.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party was busy digging its own grave. Boris Johnson collapsed under the weight of “Partygate,” Liz Truss detonated the economy with her mini-budget, and Rishi Sunak inherited a country gasping for competence. By 2024, Britain wasn’t falling in love with Starmer – it was breaking up with the Tories. Labour’s cautious “Ming vase” campaign, designed to avoid mistakes, did the rest. On 4 July 2024, Labour took a landslide: more than 400 seats on barely a third of the vote, aided by Scotland swinging back, Reform UK splitting the Tory vote, and tactical voting across England.

Legally, the route was straightforward. The monarch invited Starmer to form a government after Labour’s majority win. No loopholes, no legal tricks – just the blunt machinery of Britain’s first-past-the-post system.

Tuition Fees, Green Dreams, and Public Ownership

Starmer’s promises began to unravel quickly. Tuition fees were meant to be abolished. By 2023, that pledge was dropped – students were told the money was better spent elsewhere. His £28 billion-a-year Green Prosperity Plan, trumpeted as a climate revolution, was quietly scaled back before the election. It shrank from a grand vision into a cautious fiscal compromise, more sponge than fire hose.

Public ownership was another casualty. In 2020 he promised to bring rail, mail, water, and energy back into public hands. By the time he reached power, only rail made the cut – and even that will only return as contracts expire. Instead, he offered “Great British Energy,” a publicly owned generator that sounds bold but falls far short of the sweeping renationalisation once promised.

Welfare and Outsourcing U-turns

Universal Credit was supposed to be abolished, root and branch. Labour members heard the word “scrap” in 2020. By 2024, that word had mutated into “review and repair.” Out went the wrecking crew; in came a pot of paint and duct tape.

Then came outsourcing. Starmer’s original pitch was to end it, especially in the NHS. Yet today, Labour’s government openly leans on private providers to reduce waiting lists. It’s outsourcing in everything but name, dressed up as pragmatism. The vow to end fat-cat contracts gave way to the fear of public queues.

Taxes, Trust, and the Law

Perhaps the most symbolic reversal was tax on the top 5%. It was meant to rise. Now it won’t. Starmer pledged fairness but ended up pledging no increases in income tax or National Insurance. The rich remain untouched, while the middle pays the bill.

Legally, none of this is fraud. UK election law doesn’t punish broken promises – only false claims about opponents’ personal character. Voters can be sold pledges one year and U-turns the next, with no legal consequence. That’s why Starmer’s burnt promises remain a matter of politics, not of law. In the eyes of the state, slogans are disposable. In the eyes of voters, it looks like betrayal.

Starmer rose not on charisma but on being the least risky option. He governed his rise like a lawyer and won like an accountant. But the trail of broken pledges raises a sharper question: is Britain governed by leaders with principles – or by caretakers with excuses?

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Reference Links (itemised)
Labour leadership election result 2020 – BBC
Bank of England action during Truss mini-budget (2022) – Bank of England
UK General Election 2024 results – BBC
Labour gains in Scotland – The Guardian
Tactical voting 2024 reporting – Independent
FT and Sunday Times endorsements of Labour – Financial Times
Representation of the People Act 1983, section 106 – UK Legislation