Has the UK become impossible to govern?

A prime minister under pressure, but defiant that there is work to be done, and doubters to be proved wrong; fighting tooth and nail to stay at Number 10 – until the lectern gets brought out in front, and the resignation speech printed. 

For followers of UK politics, it is a familiar picture, one that Keir Starmer was desperately trying to avoid for months. 

Back in April, Starmer was facing calls to resign over the latest revelations in the controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson and his naming as the UK envoy to Washington.

When it came to light that Mandelson, a long-time associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was appointed despite failing security checks, Starmer admitted that he had been wrong to appoint him but shifted the blame onto Foreign Office civil servants for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment.

In May, the Prime Minister could not find someone else to blame. Many viewed the elections to the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, as well as local councils in parts of England, as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, with the results showing the answer was not favorable.

Defiant, Starmer vowed to prove wrong the "doubters" in his own party, and among the electorate as a whole. However, the voters – and more directly, his Labour party colleagues – were not convinced this time.

The cascade of events that followed saw Andy Burnham, who many view as his successor, voted in as an MP, and therefore eligible to take the reins. By the weekend, Starmer saw that while he is still willing to steer the ship, the crew no longer consider him the captain. On Monday, he walked the plank. 

But as Starmer prepares to move out of Downing Street, less than two years after a landslide win that catapulted him and his Labour into power, are the problems behind his demise of his own making? Or is he just another one in a growing list of prime ministers that are faced with an impossible challenge of governing the UK?

The UK has had four premiers in as many years, and about to have a fifth. Both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were ousted before the end of the parliament term, the latter lasting only 49 days at Downing Street, with Rishi Sunak's time as PM coming to an end after defeat in the 2024 general election.

So what are some of the issues that these prime ministers had to deal with, and did they make their demise inevitable?

Brexit

The obvious elephant in the room would be the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the consequent departure of the UK from the European Union.

The immediate outcome of the referendum was that Prime Minister David Cameron – a strong proponent of the Remain vote, who had initiated the referendum in a doomed attempt to end the ongoing debate in his center-right Conservative party and his country – resigned the day after the election, to be replaced by Theresa May.

But her plans on how to leave the EU bloc repeatedly failed to gain support from MPs. She resigned after a third failed attempt to get the exit deal with the EU ratified by Parliament, and was replaced by Boris Johnson in 2019.

And while her successors – Johnson, Truss and Sunak from her own party, Starmer from the other side – were arguably not direct victims of Brexit itself, they had to deal with fallout from its economic and political implications.

According to the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, Brexit has imposed a "significant, persistent, and worsening drag" on the UK economy, with estimates indicating GDP is 6–8% lower than it would have been otherwise.

Donald Trump

The political impact of Brexit is not as easy to quantify, but the special relationship with the US that many proponents of the Leave vote aimed to leverage has not panned out the way some hoped, largely due to the ascendance of Donald Trump and his America First approach.

From tariffs and political differences to the US' involvement in conflicts in the Middle East and Trump's desire to acquire Greenland, the UK leadership has been increasingly forced to juggle between mollifying a volatile US President and their own national interests, as well as domestic political pressure.

Struggling public services

But political pressure is far from the only thing that Starmer and those that came before him have to deal with on home soil.

Public services across the UK have been under increasing strain for years, and the recent Covid pandemic and conflicts in Europe and beyond have pushed them to the brink.

Whether it's the long waiting lists for treatment in the NHS, which some argue is simply no longer fit for purpose, or social care that many believe is surviving only thanks to the selfless sacrifices of unpaid carers, the UK government faces a plethora of domestic issues with a finite amount of money to deal with them.

Rise of populism

It's a struggle that leaves voters disillusioned with the current political system and, if the recent elections are any indicator, willing to look beyond the traditional parties in a search for change.

The rise of populism is far from unique to the UK, with similar movements popping up with varying degrees of political success across Europe and beyond.

The election gains of Reform UK and the Green Party have shown that politics in the UK has fragmented.

Arguably, a less unified political landscape could make governing more difficult, as the need to find a compromise in an increasingly polarized discourse does not come easy.

On the other hand, an argument could be made that this fragmentation is a direct result of traditional parties being out of touch for too long.

Doom of their own making

Be it as it may, some would say that the struggles of recent PMs did not stem from a fragmented political landscape.

Starmer and his Labour party have a huge majority in the House of Commons, leaving them to pursue their manifesto, one that secured them the landslide victory, as they please.

Then again, Boris Johnson's Conservatives had a sizeable majority after their win in 2019, but he was undone by a growing list of scandals, including Partygate and his appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip of the party despite knowing of allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Successor Liz Truss was forced to resign after the fallout of her disastrous 2022 mini budget.

And the pressure that forced Starmer out stemmed largely from questionable political decisions, be it appointing Mandelson as British ambassador to the US or unpopular policies, such as cutting the winter fuel allowance and welfare reforms.

While all these prime ministers had or have to contend with the issues above and more, their ultimate demise does not come as a direct result of them.

So perhaps, rather than asking whether the UK has become impossible to govern, the right question is whether it is governed well and by the right people.