Celebrated author Lionel Shriver has warned that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is steering towards a “fiscal disaster” and risks a bond market rout, as detailed by GB News, attributing this to a fundamental failure in leadership and political direction.
In a scathing assessment of Mr Starmer’s first 18 months in power, Ms Shriver told GB News that his “spectacular failure” is rooted in a “remarkable absence of personality”. She dismantled the post-2024 election narrative that “grown-ups are back in the room”, arguing the UK is instead led by a “cipher” who exudes nothing but “blankness”.
Ms Shriver said the Prime Minister “doesn’t project authority” and comes across “like an app on your screen” that is “there, but empty”. She contrasted this with former US President Donald Trump, stating one could “never accuse him of lacking personality”. This blankness, she claimed, leaves people feeling there is “nobody really there”, just a group trying to work out what to do day by day, fostering a perception that the administration “don’t know what they’re doing”, keep “changing their minds”, and are “in over their heads”.
She argued that the UK faces serious problems and needs “authority, direction and courage”, qualities she said are “completely absent from this administration”.
Beyond the personality critique, Ms Shriver warned the Labour Party has failed to “shift back to the centre” after the election. She said Sir Keir still appears “beholden to the left of his party”, with what she described as a “quasi-communist tilt”, and remains “in hock” to that element.
She stated he has not resolved Labour’s long-standing reputation for “tax and spend politics”, leading many to believe he is “heading towards a fiscal disaster” and even “the risk of a bond market rout” because he “does not project responsibility”. Ms Shriver pointed to a “brief attempt to make a very small cut to welfare spending, followed almost immediately by a retreat” as “extremely damaging to the bond markets”, signalling a “lack of fiscal discipline”.
Ms Shriver also criticised the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. She referenced the “Mandelson connection to Epstein” and his nickname, the “Prince of Darkness”, stating the appointment was “a bad look” and “should never have happened”.
