Labour policies ‘obscured’ by rows over welfare and winter fuel – Lord Kinnock

Labour policies are “barely being noticed” and have been “obscured” by rows over welfare and winter fuel, former leader Lord Neil Kinnock has said.

Lord Kinnock – who led the party from 1983 to 1992 – told Sky News that a “cloud hangs over the accomplishments of the Government”, as Sir Keir Starmer marked a year in office this weekend.

He said that the party have “a series of really commendable and absolutely essential policies” and also suggested a wealth tax as a change that could “commend” them to the general public.

The week of Sir Keir’s first anniversary in Number 10 saw the Prime Minister scrap a raft of the Government’s proposed welfare reforms in the face of a backbench revolt.

Asked what has gone wrong in Government, Lord Kinnock told the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “What’s gone wrong is really the lack of a narrative, a story of the objectives of the Government and where they’re working towards it and how they’re working towards it.

“They are working towards it with a series of really commendable and absolutely essential policies.

“They are barely noticed because they’re obscured by all the song and dance and noise, drums banging and cymbals clashing of the winter fuel payment… the welfare programme, the two-child benefit cap, the cuts in development aid, all those negative things that really are heartily disliked across the Labour movement and more widely, much more widely.”

Cloud

He said that a “cloud hangs over the accomplishments of the Government, which are substantial and will become greater, and people are not getting the message”.

Lord Kinnock said there are things the party could do that “would commend themselves to the great majority of the general public” and that these included “asset taxes”.

“By going for an imposition of 2% on asset values above £10 million, say, which is a very big fortune, the Government would be in a position to collect £10 billion or £11 billion,” he said.

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said he thought a wealth tax would be “the worst thing to do” and opposed the idea of “piling further taxes on the wealth creators”.

He also told the same Sky News programme that it had been a “year of utter underperformance” from Labour.

“Whether you look at illegal boats, migrants coming across the Channel, that’s now at record levels, far from smashing the gangs, they’re smashing all the records as to the numbers coming into our country. If you look at the chaotic U-turns that we’ve just had in the last few weeks,” he added.

Drop in support

Analysis by the PA news agency found that Labour has seen a double-digit drop in support in the opinion polls since last year’s general election.

According to figures collated this week, the party has averaged 24% in polls in the past month, down 10 points from 34% in the weeks following the 2024 election.

It is common for political parties to experience a slide in the polls after taking power – it has happened to every UK government bar one in the past 40 years – but a drop of this size is unusual.

The last time it was in double digits was 1992/93, when the Tory administration led by former prime minister John Major saw its poll numbers fall 12 points, from an average of 43% in the weeks after the April 1992 election to 31% a year later.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused the Prime Minister of “almost sleep-walking to becoming continuity Rishi Sunak”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sir Ed pointed to the PM’s record on welfare and European affairs among other things, and said: “It’s almost as if, like Sunak, a tweak here, a tweak there is all he thinks needs to be done.”