‘I was naive in being hopeful’: Labour voters feel let down after first year

Labour supporters have told the Guardian of their dissatisfaction with the party’s first year in government, as Keir Starmer marks 12 months since becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown.

Members and voters said initial optimism had given away to unhappiness about the government’s record, although many were keen to state the positives they felt had been forgotten under the weight of recent events.

Jan, a former Labour member from Manchester said she was “disillusioned, disappointed and despairing” with Starmer’s tenure so far.

She recalled the strategy often attributed to the Labour leader in the run-up to the election last year, and said: “I kept telling myself that really, Keir Starmer was a man with a Ming vase on a polished floor, and that somehow after they were in power that things would really start to change and we would have an alternative to the Tory government that left the complete mess we’re in at the moment.”

She said she had resigned her membership over the last year as a result of her unhappiness with the party’s policies on the war in Gaza, and wider changes to welfare.

She said: “I’m more sad than I am angry, and that’s [a] very difficult place to be, to feel so let down, betrayed and disappointed.”

In south London, Desanka, a social housing tenant and worker, said Labour’s housing policy would not sufficiently cut local authority housing waiting lists. “What we need is genuinely affordable housing. Without housing, without good safe housing, you can’t have healthy people, and you can’t get an education,” she said.

“I think until they address that, if they were to do that, and to have a genuine response to allow councils to build more, and put money in it, and bring back affordable housing grants that used to be. I know times are hard, but you have to make choices.”

While she was keen to credit the government for attempting to rebalance the country, she said she wouldn’t back the party again at the ballot box. She cited disagreement with the party’s policy on asylum seekers on small boats not being able to apply for citizenship.

Kennedy was another who believed Labour was not getting recognition for the positives so far. Giving the party a B grade for its first year, he said he was a supporter of the family farms tax policy and introducing VAT on private school fees.

He said Starmer and his cabinet had stabilised the country, but disputed how stereotypically Labour the government’s policies had been.

“They need to be hitting the rich more than hitting the poor,” Kennedy said. “So again, the welfare bill, again, that was another political suicide. Where do they think they’re going? And why are they hitting the most vulnerable sectors in society? They need to be hitting the super-wealthy, the super-rich, big business, big corporations, people who really can’t defend themselves.”

Laura, a lifelong member, said she was “overwhelmingly disappointed” with the party’s performance. She said she was unhappy with policies she thought had targeted the poorest in society.

She said: “I remember driving to work and feeling a sense of optimism and hope for the future for the first time in a very long time. That hope and optimism has now vanished and I feel despair, disappointment and quite often guilt and regret at having voted for this government.”

The NHS worker continued: “I’ve lost trust in these politicians in whom I initially had so much hope.”

Sympathy was the overarching feeling for Hazel Lamb, who said the government was dealing with a “much worse situation than they anticipated”.

“What I love is the fact that the government is honest,” Lamb said. “I think that people have integrity and are trying their best. I don’t have a sense that there’s self-interest going on here, I have a sense that people are actually trying to do something about all the difficult situations that we’ve got.”

Lily Raper, who has spent most of her life under Conservative-led governments, said her excitement was replaced with dismay at Labour’s foreign policy, and its policies on trans rights.

She said: “I hoped for a solid stance from the Labour government in halting the arms sales to Israel, in preventing the genocide occurring in Palestine. Obviously we’ve not seen that, and I’ve seen Labour effectively throwing trans women under the bus. Disappointment is too light a word.”

Barney Duff said the initial successes of Labour’s first 100 days had been forgotten. He referred to the creation of Great British Railways, and changes to renters’ rights that are still going through parliament, but said things had since gone awry.

“It’s just been a bit of a train wreck,” Duff said.

He added: “I thought they were going to pivot when they got in charge. I was hopeful that they’d return to their manifesto that won the leadership, but I was quite naive in being hopeful.”