Not The Greatest Start For Labour Party

When people asked me why i was voting Labour at the last Election i always replied that they HAVE to be better than the current Government because they were all kinds of awful but i always added that if they weren't , then the country was screwed because these two are the only realistic choices.
Labour's election message was that were a party of change who would do things differently from the sleaze and corruption of the Conservative Party but after 11 weeks in power, the Labour Party have not got off to a good start and Keir Starmer's approval ratings have sunk from +45 to now sit at -26 which is 1 point less popular than his predecessor Rishi Sunak
The decision to means test the £300 Winter Fuel Allowance for Pensioners and pitch such a low figure for where it was cut off thereby alienating 10 million of the 12 million pensioners in the country was foolhardy, especially when it will raise £1.2 bn when they are attempting to plug a £22bn hole that the Office of Budget Responsibility said was left by the outgoing Conservatives Party.
That they haven't announced anything that will target what they call 'those with the broadest shoulders' doesn't play well as it seems they are hitting only those who can least afford it although this should be addressed at the Budget at the end of October but what is most damaging in the early days of his government is the row around Sir Keir's freebies.
In the last parliament, Keir claimed more freebies, £107,145, than any other politician and included clothing (£16,200), football freebies (more than £35,000), concert tickets, rugby matches and the races (£17,000) while declaring £20,000 in accommodation, borrowing a rich donor's multi-million penthouse so his son could study for his GCSEs.
For someone who promised to do things differently, and although he did nothing wrong, the optics of taking freebies from his rich friends while making speeches about the short time pain people will have to suffer to balance the books doesn't play well with those who voted for something different.
As we are only 3 months into a 60 month administration, Keir and his Labour Party do have plenty of time to turn things around but it is hard to think of any incoming Government who have hot the ground with such a loud splat so quickly.