From Robo Keir to Starmer the Statesman – how the PM found a new voice

Despite domestic fiscal tensions, the prime minister sounds stronger and clearer – and has seen an uptick in popularity – as he walks Trump’s diplomatic tightrope, writes Joe Murphy

It’s eight months since the general election, but suddenly it feels like Britain has a new prime minister. Whether he is treading the diplomatic tightrope in Donald Trump’s Washington, glad-handing European leaders back home or commanding the House of Commons, Keir Starmer seems a leader reborn.

MPs who study the premier most closely remark on his stronger, clearer voice. It is as though the crisis over Ukraine has catalysed a man pigeonholed as a timid leader with a robotic style. The Mk II Starmer is bold – a shaper of international events, rather than the victim of them.

What’s more, voters are noticing. Polls show that Starmer’s personal ratings have nudged upwards, even though approval of the government as a whole has continued to drift downwards. Labour may be at a historically abysmal 28 per cent, but there is finally a modest three-point gap with Reform, on 25, and a comfortable lead over the Conservatives marooned on 21.

For a Labour Party grappling with unsolvable dilemmas over public spending, service cuts, welfare reform and immigration, the uptick in Starmer’s fortunes represents hope that a leader who commands renewed respect on the world stage might help them navigate the hard trade-offs required at home.

Starmer would not be the first prime minister to come of age in a military crisis. Margaret Thatcher was reborn in the Falklands victory, which bought her a khaki election victory and gave time for her economic reforms to take root. John Major grew in stature when, within weeks of becoming PM, he was pitched into the first Iraq conflict. Tony Blair cruised the international stage effortlessly for a decade, and his third victory in 2005 came after the second Iraq war, even though the inquiries into that invasion ultimately ruined his reputation.

Nobody should be surprised that Starmer rose to meet a sudden emergency head-on. We saw during the Southport riots last year how he was capable of responding effectively – and ruthlessly – to serious public disorder by fast-tracking heavy punishments for those threatening the nation’s peace.

But after Southport he retreated back to months of stiff, leaden, uninspiring speeches, as the weight of economic woes and an unpopular Budget dragged the government down. His speeches in the new year, planned to seize back the initiative, were exercises in dull repetition.

Starmer’s brand new voice made its debut, not in Washington, but four days before his trip to meet Trump. It first emerged at the Scottish Labour conference, during a graveyard Sunday morning slot to an unfilled hall, whose hungover audience expected the usual worn-out stump anecdotes. Instead, the Labour leader surprised old hands with a passionate delivery coupled with “human” anecdotes.

One line stood out: Starmer spoke of the Galloway Hoard, a 1,000-year-old Viking treasure discovered a decade ago. Historians had only just translated the inscription on the gold, which read: “This is the community’s wealth.” Starmer paused and continued: “Conference — the soil we walk on has life and character, and this is Scotland’s character.” One impressed Scottish MP commented later: “It was a line worthy of Obama.”

Two days later in the Commons, Starmer dropped a bombshell by boosting military spending at the expense of the international aid budget. Despite rumblings from the left, the policy went down well with Labour MPs facing challenges from Nigel Farage’s Reform party. “He shot Farage’s fox,” said one red wall MP. Another said: “You could see the ripple of emotion down the Labour benches as MPs went from thinking ‘Oh!’ to ‘OK, that makes sense’.”

In his White House talks with Trump, Starmer swallowed his pride and, shamelessly deploying a letter from the King, kept alive his key goals, including US engagement with Ukraine and a hoped-for exemption for the UK from Trump’s punitive trade tariffs.

When Trump and vice-president JD Vance monstered Volodymyr Zelensky a day later, Starmer took the gamble of inviting the Ukraine leader to London and hugging him in public. Zelensky was also honoured with an audience with the King ahead of Trump, and given centre stage at the special summit of European leaders in London.

Starmer made the weather again in Prime Minister’s Questions this week, when he read out the names and ages of men who “died fighting for Britain alongside our allies” – the unexpected tribute formed a clear rebuke to Vance, who had made comments about the effectiveness of sending troops from “some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, seen as an insult to the UK and France.

Meanwhile, the special EU summit saw European leaders singing from the Starmer song sheet and hugging Zelensky. Starmer was not there, due to Brexit, but his influence was clear.

Although the UK leader is standing taller internationally, economic tensions torturing Labour at home are not going away any time soon. Low growth, welfare reform, looming cuts to public services, trouble with the unions and voter anger at immigration levels could all erupt and blow away the gains of the past week.

These tensions will come to the fore at this month’s spring forecast, with some mainstream Labour MPs pressing chancellor Rachel Reeves to relax the fiscal rules that forbid higher borrowing in order to fund electorally sensitive budgets. “This is a golden opportunity to allow more borrowing – while the public are furious about Trump’s treatment of Zelensky,” said one.

However, during Monday’s Commons statement on Ukraine, Starmer backed the fiscal rules, denying himself wiggle room and tying his fortunes close to Reeves who is still damaged by the winter fuel allowance cut.

It is impossible to predict how the next few days will go – let alone the four years to the next general election. But if Starmer can maintain the style that has earned plaudits, he might just turn out to be the leader that Britons choose again.