Two Ways Not to Govern: Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and the Competing Stories of UK Government

Prime Ministers Liz Truss and Keir Starmer adopted contrasting leadership approaches, yet both premierships ended in failure. We argue that they embodied two distinctly ineffective governance styles. At one extreme, Truss thought that powerful prime ministers could make policy from the top down without collaboration and compromise, before multiple crises exposed her dependence on institutions, markets and political relationships. At another, Starmer was cautious and acutely aware of these constraints, but struggled to convert this realism into an effective political narrative and image of governing competence. Effective government requires prime ministers to reconcile contrasting requirements: to project decisive leadership to satisfy the rules of Westminster politics while being pragmatic and collaborating with many others to navigate the constraints of complex government. Andy Burnham's early premiership provides a new test of whether these competing requirements can be reconciled by combining decisive statements from the centre with support for decentralisation.