Sir Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as Prime Minister, less than two years after taking office.¹ PRWeek asked me, along with others in the industry, for a view on two questions: how he will be remembered as a communicator, and what the change at the top means for public affairs. The two are closely connected.

On the first, this is what I told PRWeek in its assessment of his record:

“History may be kinder to Sir Keir Starmer than the Labour Party, when his time as Prime Minister is reviewed. He delivered a resounding election victory and some significant legislation in his two years as PM but quickly lost the support of voters who were impatient for change.

Yet Keir was not a good communicator. He was not a natural orator, his big speeches didn’t play significantly on the emotions like Blair. He also seemed a little ill at ease with the informal media coverage meaning people didn’t warm to his personality. His biggest failure, though, was in not communicating how he intended to achieve his objectives and any progress made.”

That, for me, is the heart of it. Starmer was a serious and dutiful Prime Minister, but a leader who does not explain his purpose, or show the progress he is making, will struggle to keep the public with him. The clarity that won the 2024 election was never carried into government, and much of his difficulty followed from that.

Public opinion after the 2024 election

Labour won 411 seats in July 2024, on 33.7% of the vote, the lowest share for any post-war winning party.² By September 2024, Ipsos found 54% of Britons dissatisfied with Starmer as Prime Minister, up 24 points in two months.³ By December, the figure had reached 61%, a net rating of −34. Ipsos found his ratings after five months were the weakest of any Prime Minister it has measured since the late 1970s.⁴

Prime Ministers since 1997: the record

Eight people have been Prime Minister since 1997. Five of them took office between general elections rather than straight after one.⁵

Three dated announcements from that period:

• October 2007. After weeks of speculation, Gordon Brown announced there would be no autumn general election.¹⁴
• 23 September 2022. Liz Truss’s government delivered its mini-budget. She left office on 25 October 2022.¹⁵
• 22 May 2024. Rishi Sunak announced, outside Downing Street, a general election for 4 July 2024.¹⁶

What the change means for public affairs

The more practical question is what the change means now. This is the view I gave PRWeek on the road ahead for the sector:

“As this chapter in Downing Street draws to a close, attention turns to what comes next. For the public affairs sector, change will mean a rapid influx of new ministers, advisers and priorities, requiring careful navigation. If, as is likely, Burnham emerges as the next leader, he will want to demonstrate clear differentiation early on. That is likely to involve a small number of high-profile decisions signalling genuine change. While tighter rules on lobbying seem probable, they are unlikely to sit at the very top of an already crowded list of priorities.”

I would add one point. In a transition like this, it is tempting to assume that everything stops, but in practice, the priorities move rather than disappear. A new administration will want to establish itself quickly and will be receptive to credible ideas that support growth and investment. On the prospect of tighter rules around lobbying, my years on the PRCA Public Affairs Board left me in no doubt that transparency is in the profession’s interest, not against it, and that clearer standards tend to serve everyone well.¹⁷

Three lessons for the next Downing Street team

1. Say what you are for, early. The first 100 days set the frame for everything after them. A new Prime Minister has a short window to define a purpose in a sentence.
2. Report progress, not just intentions. Voters forgive difficult decisions more readily when they can see what those decisions are delivering. Regular, concrete updates on a few measurable goals keep that link visible.
3. Communicate inside government as well as outside it. Ministers, advisers and civil servants need to hear the same story the public does, or delivery drifts.

None of this changes how I see the work. Public affairs, done properly, is more than access. It is about bridging the priorities of policymakers and the needs of business, openly and grounded in substance. The coming months will be uncertain, but they will also bring opportunities, and I will be following them closely.

Sources

1. GOV.UK, “Sir Keir Starmer” (Prime Minister 5 July 2024 – 20 July 2026); ABC News, “UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces resignation with ‘good grace’”, 22 June 2026. ↩︎
2. House of Commons Library, “General election 2024 results” (CBP-10009). ↩︎
3. Ipsos, “More than 6 in 10 Britons dissatisfied with how the government is running the country”, 23 September 2024. ↩︎
4. Ipsos, “Dissatisfaction with Starmer reaches 61%, his highest as Labour leader”, 16 December 2024. ↩︎
5. GOV.UK, “Past Prime Ministers”. ↩︎
6. House of Commons Library, “UK Election Statistics: 1918–2023” (CBP-7529), 9 August 2023. ↩︎
7. House of Commons Library, “General Election 2010” (RP10-36), 2 February 2011. ↩︎
8. House of Commons Library, “General Election 2015: full results and analysis” (CBP-7186), 28 July 2015. ↩︎
9. House of Commons Library, “General Election 2017: full results and analysis” (CBP-7979), 29 January 2019. ↩︎
10. House of Commons Library, “UK Election Statistics: 1918–2023” (CBP-7529), 9 August 2023. ↩︎
11. Museum of the Prime Minister, “Liz Truss”. ↩︎
12. House of Commons Library, “General election 2024 results” (CBP-10009). ↩︎
13. House of Commons Library, “General election 2024 results” (CBP-10009). ↩︎
14. Prospect, “Poster-truth politics: the Gordon Brown posters for the election that never was”. ↩︎
15. Museum of the Prime Minister, “Liz Truss”. ↩︎
16. CNN, “UK general election: PM Rishi Sunak calls surprise July vote as his party seeks to defy dire polls”, 22 May 2024. ↩︎
17. PublicAffairsNetworking, “Mark Glover appointed as new APPC Chair”, 24 May 2016 (the APPC later merged into the PRCA to form its Public Affairs Board); PRCA Professional Lobbying Register. ↩︎