Starmer’s opening moves as PM have been as unpopular as Thatcher’s were. Can he recover like she did? | Andy Beckett

In 1979, another incoming prime minister struggled to satisfy the public hunger for change

“When we asked for your vote,” said the prime minister, “we didn’t promise you instant sunshine. We pointed out … that a nation can’t accelerate downhill for years and then … suddenly return to prosperity … We had to start … the long, slow climb back up the hill to recovery. I’m afraid some things will get worse before they get better.”

When Margaret Thatcher said these words in a party political broadcast in March 1980, her government, like Keir Starmer’s, was months old but already unpopular. The economy was struggling and the mood in Whitehall and Westminster was souring. The following year, her party’s poll rating fell to a then historic low of 23%. As Starmer is discovering, having also warned that “things will get worse before they get better”, prime ministers who promise to reverse national decline by a circuitous route risk deepening the sense of disillusionment.

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