Britains Prime Minister, Bruised by a Dispute Over Freebies, Badly Needs a Reset

When Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a whopping parliamentary majority in Britain’s election in July, it was with only 34 percent of the vote, leading one commentator to call it a “loveless landslide.” Now, some allies of Mr.Starmer worry that he is going too far in returning the favor.The new prime minister has shown decidedly little love to a beleaguered British public, restricting payments that help retirees with winter heating costs and warning of painful cuts when the government rolls out its first budget next month.

Things, Mr.Starmer said, “will get worse before they get better.”As he prepares to address his party’s annual conference on Tuesday, several analysts said they expected Mr.

Starmer to shift his tone — if not to one of hope and sunny optimism, then at least to one in which he will show how the government’s harsh early moves will pay off in the long term.“He’ll hammer home the message that he inherited a legacy of ashes,” said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester.“But then he’ll pivot to the big structural changes that will make Britain stronger.”One problem for Mr.

Starmer is that his austere public tone has coincided with signs that he can be more profligate in private.He has been dogged by a series of tempests over freebies accepted by him and his wife, Victoria, as well as by internal squabbling over the salary paid to his powerful chief of staff, Sue Gray, which exceeds that of the prime minister himself.The dispute over his adviser’s pay, which was leaked to the BBC, has prompted a flood of coverage of a supposedly strife-torn Downing Street, where political aides and senior civil servants are said to be disclosing damaging information on their rivals.

The staunchly pro-Conservative Daily Telegraph summed up the waspish atmosphere with the headline, “I’m Still in Control, Says Starmer, as Feud Erupts.”We are having trouble retrieving the article co...