Keir Starmer was 'not remotely unlikeable', Wes Streeting claims

KEIR Starmer’s unpopularity with the UK public was difficult to understand because he was not “remotely dislikeable”, Wes Streeting has claimed. The Defence Secretary, who served as health secretary under Starmer but resigned after the May elections in a bid to force him out of office, made the comments as he spoke to Iain Dale for an All Talk show at the Edinburgh Fringe on Saturday. In May, the pro-independence Plaid Cymru took power in Wales, removing Labour from the top of the Cardiff government for the first time since devolution in 1999, and the SNP returned to power in Scotland. READ MORE: Tories 'in the gutter' as they plan to evict foreign nationals from council homes Combined with the Sinn Fein First Minister in Northern Ireland, Streeting noted that this means that three of the UK’s four nations are led by parties which oppose the Union “for the first time in Britain's history”. He blamed the poor election results for Labour on Starmer’s popularity, saying: “The really hard truth was that the public had checked out on Keir personally and would not give him a hearing and were not minded to give him a second chance. I really believe that. I wish it wasn't the case, but it was. “I also feel that some of the criticism he got and the animosity I encountered on the doorstep was so disproportionate, because there were people who really disliked Keir and I couldn't understand. I don't think he's a remotely dislikable person.” READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon mocks 'obsessed' JK Rowling and Joanna Cherry in Fringe show When Starmer left office in June, he had a net favourability rating of -56, according to YouGov polling that found 74% of the UK public thought he was doing a bad job of running the country, while just 18% thought he was doing well. In September 2025, Gideon Skinner, the senior director of UK politics at the polling firm Ipsos, said Starmer’s personal satisfaction ratings were “the worst for any prime minister polled by Ipsos since we first started asking the question in 1977”. The Ipsos polling had found that just 13% of voters said they were satisfied with Starmer. Share