Labour Party leadership of Keir Starmer

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The Labour Party leadership of Keir Starmer began when Keir Starmer was elected as Leader of the UK Labour Party in April 2020, following the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn after Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election. Starmer's tenure as leader has been marked by his opposition to some of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and various other issues involving the government, including Partygate, the cost of living crisis, and the industrial disputes.

During Starmer's tenure, his party suffered the loss of a previously Labour seat in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election, followed by holds in the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, 2022 Birmingham Erdington by-election and 2022 City of Chester by-election, and a gain from the Conservative Party in the 2022 Wakefield by-election. Labour received mixed results in the 2021 local elections, followed by gains in the 2022 local elections. Labour made gains in the 2023 local elections, becoming the largest party in local government for the first time since 2002, and made gains in the 2024 local elections, including winning the West Midlands mayoral election. In February 2023, Starmer's antisemitism reforms resulted in the party no longer being monitored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). However, Starmer has faced criticism for his leadership of the party, such as via accusations of controlling the party in an authoritarian manner, dropping the pledges he made in his leadership bid, and his public statement that Israel has the right to cut off power and water supplies to Gaza.

Since the end of 2021, Labour have consistently polled ahead of the Conservatives, often by very wide margins, as the governments under prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak were affected by issues such as the cost of living crisis, the July 2022 government crisis, the September 2022 mini-budget, the October 2022 government crisis, the National Health Service strikes, and a number of scandals involving Conservative MPs.