In a scathing assessment of the Prime Minister’s first 18 months in power, celebrated author Lionel Shriver told GB News that Keir Starmer’s "spectacular failure" is rooted in a "remarkable absence of personality".
Speaking to GB News, Ms Shriver dismantled the "grown-ups are back in the room" narrative that followed the 2024 election, arguing that the UK is instead being led by a "cipher" who exudes nothing but "blankness".
The author told Steven Edginton for GB News Originals: "Well, a lot of the problem with Starmer, and I’m sorry to use what’s become a tired word, is that it’s a vibe problem. It’s what he exudes. And what he exudes is blankness.
"He doesn’t project authority. He comes across like an app on your screen. There, but empty. He has a remarkable absence of personality.
"Whatever you think of Donald Trump, however flawed he may be, you could never accuse him of lacking personality.
"That blankness leaves people feeling there’s nobody really there not even a wizard behind the curtain. Just a group of people trying to work out what to do day by day.
"And that’s the feeling: that they don’t know what they’re doing, that they keep changing their minds, and that they’re in over their heads.
"The UK is facing serious problems and needs authority, direction and courage, qualities that are completely absent from this administration.
Lionel Shriver told GB News that Keir Starmer’s 'spectacular failure' is rooted in a 'remarkable absence of personality'
|GB NEWS
Beyond the personality deficit, Ms Shriver warned of a "fiscal disaster" looming over the Labour Government.
She argued that Sir Keir has failed to shift to the center, remaining "in hock" to a "quasi-communist tilt" within his party.
She said: "I think, as usual, the Labour Party has failed to do what Democrats in the US are repeatedly being told to do after elections, shift back to the centre.
"Keir Starmer still appears beholden to the left of his party, with what many see as a quasi-communist tilt.
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"As a result, many believe he is heading towards a fiscal disaster even the risk of a bond market rout because he does not project responsibility.
"That brief attempt to make a very small cut to welfare spending, followed almost immediately by a retreat, looked extremely damaging to the bond markets.
"It signalled a lack of fiscal discipline, and at a moment when the stakes could not be higher.
"As for the more immediate controversy surrounding the Mandelson connection to Epstein he invited it.
"Peter Mandelson’s nickname alone, the “Prince of Darkness”, tells you everything.
"He is old news for the Labour Party, and appointing him as ambassador to the US was a bad look. It should never have happened."