REVEALED: Keir Starmer's biggest U-turns during first year in power - from Winter Fuel to rape gangs

But the Prime Minister's popularity has sunk to an all-time low of just 23 per cent, according to YouGov, with nearly 70 per cent of people having an unpopular opinion of the Labour leader.

So, as Britain marks one year since Labour's victory, here are the times Starmer has flip-flopped on the big issues.

Benefit cuts

The most recent Starmer U-turn came just 90 minutes before voting on his welfare bill began, when ministers announced plans to restrict eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (Pip), with any changes coming after a review of the benefit.

In a huge shift in policy just before the division bell was rung, MPs across the House of Commons were left dumbfounded, with one even saying that no one "knew what they were voting on anymore".

The move left Chancellor Rachel Reeves scrambling to plug a now-squandered savings bill of almost £5billion, with further concessions on Universal Credit helping to thwart an otherwise catastrophic backbench revolt.

Starmer was forced to concede ground to his own MPs are more than 120 initially signed an amendment which threatened to kill off his welfare bill.

The initial concessions, unveiled just days before, meant the benefits debacle saw two flip-flops for the price of one.

Winter Fuel Payments

In another battle between the Treasury and MPs, Reeves last July announced that pensioners not receiving Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive Winter Fuel Payments - potentially removing the OAP perk from around nine million Britons.

The payment cut was met with a fierce backlash from MPs, trade unions and voters.

Despite holding firm for a number of months, and even dismissing a humiliating conference defeat, the Prime Minister eventually buckled to calls for a Winter Fuel payment rethink.

Back in May, Starmer confirmed at one of his weekly jostles with Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister's Questions that the previous plan had been shelved.

The Chancellor later said: "Targeting winter fuel payments was a tough decision, but the right decision because of the inheritance we had been left by the previous Government.

"We have now acted to expand the eligibility of the winter fuel payment so no pensioner on a lower income will miss out."

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Grooming gangs

Throughout his time in No10, Starmer has also consistently dismissed calls for a national inquiry into one of Britain's darkest scandals - the rape gangs.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister even accused those calling for a nationwide probe of "jumping on the bandwagon of the far-right", including Badenoch.

However, following an audit into the grooming gangs scandal by Baroness Louise Casey, Starmer accepted her recommendations to hold an inquiry.

The Prime Minister said: "She's come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she's seen. I've read every single word of her report, and I'm going to accept her recommendation.

"I think that's the right thing to do, on the basis of what she has put in her audit.

"I asked her to do that job, to double-check on this. She's done that job for me, and having read her report… I shall now implement her recommendation."

'Island of Strangers' speech

The Prime Minister faced some flak from left-wing Labour MPs after claiming that the UK risks becoming an "island of strangers" if uncontrolled immigration is not urgently addressed.

However, Starmer was later forced to complete what many describe as "his most humiliating U-turn yet" when he completely disowned his previous comments and admitted he had not read the words in his speech before addressing the nation.

Following the speech, which the Prime Minister delivered in May, a Government spokesman said Starmer "absolutely stands by" his language, including claims that mass immigration had done "incalculable damage" to the British economy.

However, some months after being compared to firebrand former Tory MP Enoch Powell, Starmer made a drastic U-turn, claiming he should have read the speech more carefully and "held it up to the light a bit more".

He told the Observer: "I wouldn't have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be, interpreted as an echo of Powell. I had no idea - and my speechwriters didn't know either. But that particular phrase - no, it wasn't right. I'll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it."

Waspi women

Labour has for some time thrown its weight behind the plight of Waspi women - with its 2019 manifesto promising compensation for the millions of women affected.

The Waspi - Women Against State Pension Inequality - campaign claims 3.8 million women born in the 1950s were not made aware of the age change before claiming their pension, throwing their retirement plans into jeopardy.

In a 2022 interview with a Waspi woman called Carol on the BBC, Starmer discussed his support for the campaign.

He said: "All your working life you've got in mind the date at which you can retire and get your pension, and then just as you get towards it, the goalposts are moved and you don't get it.

"It's a real injustice and we need to do something about it, Carol, because that wasn't the basis upon which you paid in, that wasn't the basis upon which you were working and we’ve got a Government that has basically put its fingers in its ears, as far as I can see, in relation to this."

However, in a huge U-turn, Work & Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, told MPs that Labour would no longer compensate Waspi women.

Starmer went on to say it would be a "burden" on the taxpayer, with Kendall adding that "the great majority of women knew the state pension age was increasing", and that a state-funded payout would not be "fair or value for taxpayers' money'".

Two-child benefit cap

Shortly after his rise to Labour leader in 2020, the then-Leader of the Opposition vowed to create a social security system fit for the 21st century by lifting the two-child benefit cap brought introduced by the Tories in 2017.

Stamer said: "We must scrap the inhuman Work Capability Assessments and private provision of disability assessments... scrap punitive sanctions, two-child limit and benefits cap."

However, in the build-up to the 2024 General Election, Starmer said Labour was "not changing" the Conservative Party's policy.

Shortly after being swept to power, Starmer suspended seven rebellious MPs who opted to vote with the SNP to scrap the cap.

When directly asked about the policy more recently, the Prime Minister responded: "I would say this is a down payment on child poverty. We've got a taskforce that will come out with a strategy.

"I want to get to the root causes of child poverty. One of the greatest things the last Labour Government did was to drive down child poverty. I am determined we will do that."

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage is said to have outflanked the Prime Minister, with Reform UK now vowing to lift the cap in yet another example of turquoise tanks being parked firmly on Labour's front lawns.

Tractor Tax

Another group the Prime Minister appeared to infuriate after entering No10 has undoubtedly been British farmers.

Rural communities, many of which voted Labour for the first time in the 2024 General Election, voiced their fury when the Prime Minister announced plans to end farmers' inheritance tax exemptions last year.

Starmer had warned that "each day brings a new existential risk to British farming," adding, "losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can't come back".

However, the Prime Minister later slashed agricultural property relief, meaning previously exempt farms will be hit with a 20 per cent levy on farming assets worth in excess of £1million.

National Farming Union president Tom Bradshaw said farmers "are worried about making it to the end of 2025, never mind what happens 25 years down the line".

Farmers have taken to the streets for months following the announcement, with tractors even descending on Westminster to demonstrate against the move.

There is now even speculation that Starmer is preparing for a backbench rebellion from some of his fresh-faced rural MPs.

Around 40 Labour MPs have reportedly started plotting against the Prime Minister, buoyed by Starmer's recent Winter Fuel and welfare U-turns.

National Insurance Contributions

Labour's 2024 manifesto promised not to raise taxes on working people, including national insurance income tax and VAT.

In black and white, the manifesto stated: "Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT."

However, in the Chancellor's first budget, Labour pushed ahead with raising employers' National Insurance Contributions by 1.2 per cent and even reduced the threshold at which companies pay it.

Ministers argued it should not be counted as a U-turn due to Labour's manifesto strictly stating Starmer would not raise taxes on "working people", with the increase hitting bosses rather than staff.

However, the levy increase has been labelled a "jobs tax", with the hospitality sector issuing particularly strong warnings about reduced hours, price increases and, in the worst case scenario, jobs lost.

We'll let you make up your mind.

What's a woman?

“A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that, trans women are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law," Starmer said back in March 2022.

However, fast-forward some three years and the Prime Minister's tone shifts rather markedly.

Having come under fire for only admitting that 99.9 per cent of women "of course haven't got a penis", the Prime Minister eventually threw his weight behind the Supreme Court after it ruled that the Equality Act was referring only to biological sex when using the terms “woman” and “sex”.

Following the ruling, Starmer said: “A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.

“I actually welcome the judgment because I think it gives real clarity."