The Guardian view on Labour’s first year in power: crisis reveals the cost of caution | Editorial

Sir Keir Starmer promised competence. But a brutal week revealed he hasn’t delivered it, and his failure to lead with vision may be his undoing

“Nothing is inevitable until it happens,” wrote AJP Taylor, rejecting the idea that history unfolds according to a plan. Taylor distrusted grand visions. Sir Keir Starmer seems afraid to have one. A year into power, the prime minister doesn’t act like a man chosen by history, but one hoping to avoid its glare. Modern politics shifts quickly and governing as if nothing has changed is a risk. Yet Sir Keir treats pragmatism as principle and surrounds himself with advisers recycling New Labour-era habits: technocracy, market deference and fiscal discipline.

In a world of Trumpian shocks and geopolitical realignments, that strategy risks looking less like responsible government than crippling rigidity. What once passed for prudence now borders on denial. Change is happening regardless; the only choice is how to meet it. Retreating to the relative safety of the global stage is no substitute for leadership. Sir Keir cuts a confident figure abroad. At home, the instincts stumble. When a rebellion gutted his own government’s disability benefit cuts, he blamed his failure to grip the issue on being “heavily focused” on foreign affairs. In seeking gravitas overseas, he found mutiny at home.

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