Prime ministers keep getting forced out of Downing Street. Could fixing poverty save them? 

As Keir Starmer fights for his political life, experts have warned that we won’t stop the “conveyer belt’ of prime ministers without tackling poverty.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has resigned and called for a leadership election after Labour’s disastrous set of local election results. If the embattled PM is replaced, he will be the sixth UK premier in seven years.

No prime minister since David Cameron has served a full parliamentary term; Liz Truss’ seven-week tenure was infamously similar to the lifespan of a rotting lettuce.

So why is it so hard for the UK’s most powerful person to stay in the job?

Part of the explanation is Britain’s parliamentary system. It’s not like in the United States, where the president has a separate mandate – the PM’s authority depends upon the confidence of his or her MPs.

But that procedural aspect is only part of the explanation. After all, the average prime ministerial stint was much longer prior to 2016 than it is now.

Part of the reason for the merry-go-round, Michael Bankole, lecturer in politics at Kings College London, explains, is that the last decade has seen a tangible decline in living standards.

“We have some serious problems to tackle as a nation. Rising poverty, instability, the amount of people who can’t pay their bills, 7.5 million households in food poverty. We are at a critical juncture,” he said. “So there is anger, a lot of anger, we saw that at the local elections… then that translates into discontent in the party.

“It’s ironic because we can’t really afford it… what we don’t need is to be stuck in a wrangle of Labour’s internal politics.”

Read more

• 2025 will not go down in history as the Year of the Starmer. Can he keep his job through 2026?
• ‘Starmer needs to be more scared of us than Reform’: Zack Polanski on how the Greens can outflank Farage
• Brits are getting sick of Starmer’s U-turns – and here’s the proof

How poverty has grown amid prime ministerial change

A decade ago, as Cameron was set to be replaced by Theresa May, around one in five people in the UK were living in poverty, a figure hasn’t really moved. But the type of poverty people are experiencing has deepened.

Around 3.8 million people are living in destitution – almost two-and-a-half times the number in 2017, including nearly triple the number of children. By October 2025, 4.1 million of the poorest households were going without essentials, and 3.2 million had cut back on food or gone hungry.

Food bank charity Trussell distributed around one million food parcels in 2015-16, a figure that has since increased threefold.

Meanwhile, wage growth has lagged since the 2008 financial crisis. When you adjust for inflation, the average British worker is £11,000 worse off a year than they were before the recession.

All this translates into political discontent, said Sam Alvis, associate director at IPPR.

“Any government, of any political stripe, will only secure lasting electoral success if people genuinely feel their lives are becoming more affordable again,” he told Big Issue.

“That means going beyond headline inflation figures. It means tackling the real pressures people experience every day: spiralling rents, high energy bills, expensive childcare, and the rising cost of essentials at the supermarket checkout.”

The public – and therefore MPs – turn against politicians very quickly in this context.

“The political instability we are seeing in the UK is closely linked to rising inequality, persistent poverty, and deepening insecurity in people’s lives,” said Jess McQuail, director of rights champions Just Fair. 

Part of the problem has been Labour’s failure to make a clear ideological case for change.

Early on in Starmer’s term, the Labour government declined to lift the two-child benefit cap and attempted to reduce disability payments. Both decisions were later reversed – but the damage was done, said Jen Clark, economic, cultural and social rights lead at Amnesty International UK.

“Successive Governments have demonised those on social security for cheap political points instead of protecting their human right to food and a decent home,” she said. “The result is that 75% of us think poverty is getting worse and until that changes we are going to continue to see politicians plummeting to new depths of unpopularity and political instability.” 

Will the next prime minister finally tackle poverty?

If Starmer is replaced, the new prime minister will set a new direction for the party.

Outgoing health secretary Wes Streeting is on the party’s right, calling for a reduced welfare system and has been linked to introducing some elements of private finance into the NHS.

He cound face Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor and favoured candidate of many on the party’s left-wing, who intends to compete for the Makerfield seat vacated by Josh Simons to return Westminster. Angela Rayner – who has just been cleared of the tax dispute with HMRC that saw her quit as deputy prime minister – is another candidate, as is Ed Miliband, though the former party leader has said he doesn’t want the job.

If radical policies to address poverty are key to winning back the electorate, Wes Streeting is “not the answer”, Bankole said.

“I’m not sure he represents the kind of positive compassion and care or the sense of vision that we need at this moment,” he added.

“I do think Angela Rayner would be a good fit. I think she’s someone who is very relatable, who speaks with conviction.

“You go up and down the country, and people are not only struggling when it comes to bills or the general living standards, but people also feel unheard and unspoken to. Someone like Angela, given her background and given how she’s spoken in the past and her general political platform, I think she’d be a really good fit.”

This said, it’s not easy for politicians to enact the radical change they initially promise.

Starmer has pursued welfare cuts to appease a right-wing press who constantly accused him of ballooning the country’s welfare bill.

And Rayner, in particular, has faced misogynist and classist reporting in the press.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn believes that Starmer’s struggles are down to to inequality.

“This country might be about to have its sixth prime minister in seven years,” he posted on X.

“Why? Because they have all refused to take on a rigged economic system that enriches the few at the expense of us all. People want a society where children don’t go hungry. That is really not too much to ask.”

Big Issue’s Poverty Zero campaign has been calling for the government to set poverty reductions targets and hold them legally accountable to those commitments.

“It’s unlikely we’ll stop this conveyor belt of prime ministers in and out of Downing Street until one of them can get a grip on the UK’s staggeringly high rates of hardship,” said Rhianon Steeds, campaigns and public affairs manager at Big Issue.

“More than one in five people in the UK live in poverty, and many of us cannot remember feeling worse off. If the next PM wants to make it to a second term in office, they must convince the public they have a viable plan to bring down the cost of living and make sure those on the lowest incomes aren’t locked out from accessing essentials.”

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