Government said it would appeal the High Court proscription ruling, leaving arrested/charged people in limbo.
Independent, Manchester-rooted, evidence-led reporting and explainers.
A running, source-linked list of notable reversals, broken pledges, and messy climbdowns. Default view is newest first.
This is mostly AI-generated, barely reviewed with linked sources. It will be updated occasionally.
We built it this way because manually digging through modern “bad news” and bullshit is slow, depressing, and usually not that informative — so we made a semi-automatic dashboard to catch Labour drama we might’ve missed.
Many of these are raised in the main Labour report, but there are probably a few that should be escalated for policy effects.
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Government said it would appeal the High Court proscription ruling, leaving arrested/charged people in limbo.
The Palestine Action proscription ban triggered mass civil-disobedience arrests before being struck down as unlawful.
CIPD survey: over a third of employers plan to cut hiring in response to Labour’s employment-rights reforms.
Now reported to be considering bringing forward the 3% target anyway, implying the earlier plan wasn’t credible.
Employer survey: over a third plan to cut permanent hiring due to Labour’s employment-rights changes.
Defence spend promises landed without a published, comprehensive investment plan, worrying suppliers.
Labour-linked Labour Together got caught commissioning a dossier targeting journalists, prompting cross-party calls for an inquiry.
The same Labour Together affair included allegations of a paid “investigation” into reporters’ personal backgrounds (now under PR industry scrutiny).
Jonathan Powell reportedly rejected overtures to replace McSweeney as chief of staff.
High Court ruled the proscription unlawful (Feb 13, 2026).
Met Police paused arrests for “support” offences after the High Court ruling against the Palestine Action proscription, exposing enforcement chaos.
Tony Blair Institute publicly accused Miliband’s approach of driving up costs and urged policy reversal.
Drove out the cabinet secretary amid the wider Mandelson crisis—public evidence of a system failing at basic due diligence.
Turned the cabinet secretary exit into a broader “clear-out” story, angering officials and raising payout/“ministerial direction” noise.
The Mandelson fallout was bad enough that Reuters reported successive top departures (aides + cabinet secretary) and a “reset” atmosphere.
External analysis said meeting the target would take “a miracle” given planning-application rates.
Had No 10 admit Doyle “did not give a full account” before the peerage—basic vetting blown.
Gave Matthew Doyle a peerage, then removed the whip after his support for a convicted child-sex-offender associate emerged.
Ended up with Labour chair-level figures saying Doyle should lose the peerage, because the appointment was indefensible.
Tim Allan quit as communications director after five months, deepening the No 10 churn.
Starmer faced resignation calls from within Labour during the Mandelson/Epstein appointment fallout.
Communications director resigned amid the same scandal’s blast radius.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar publicly called for Starmer to resign.
Morgan McSweeney quit as chief of staff, taking responsibility for advising Mandelson’s appointment.
Chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quit over the Mandelson–Epstein fallout, signalling inner-circle breakdown.
Police searched addresses linked to Mandelson in a misconduct-in-public-office probe.
Starmer apologised to Epstein victims for appointing Mandelson.
Reuters framed the saga as a leadership-weakening “nightmare” of Starmer’s own making.
Starmer said he regretted appointing Mandelson and accused him of repeated lies over Epstein ties.
Mandelson resigned from the Lords amid the scandal, after vetting plainly failed.
Government agreed to release Mandelson-appointment documents to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
China trip triggered criticism from UK and U.S. politicians (espionage + human rights accusations aired during the visit).
Reuters’ framing of the China “pivot”: it showcased the drawbacks of the strategy in real time.
Reconfirmed “no WASPI compensation” in the new decision, angering campaigners again.
Doubled down on the jury-trial change in the face of internal rebellion headlines.
Arrived encouraging firms to seize China opportunities while Western alliances were under strain—inviting predictable backlash.
Announced a pubs support package (15% rates discount + freezes) after the backlash.
Commons Library briefing spells out the pubs business-rates relief/caps after the government’s U-turn.
Labour MPs publicly complained the pub-rates U-turn still didn’t go far enough.
Tried to insert a security-service carve-out into the Hillsborough Law bill that campaigners said undermined the law’s purpose.
Postponed the Commons vote/third reading on the Hillsborough Law bill until “agreement”, turning a promise into drift.
Resolution Foundation publicly said the government had dropped/watered-down reforms and needed to be bolder after U-turns.
Picked fights (jury trials, SEND, China reset, freebies) that stacked into a single narrative: chaotic judgement + constant damage limitation, not calm competence.
Pulled the amendment only after backlash from mayors/MPs/families.
Internal Labour sources described the constant reversals as eroding MP loyalty (jury trials + SEND explicitly cited).
Admitted the Hillsborough Law bill was stuck in wrangling over national-security exemptions and scope.
Shifted the digital ID plan to optional IDs alongside passports/visas, conceding civil-liberties criticism.
Kicked the “optional” scheme out to 2029 after staking political capital on compulsion.
The welfare-reform row became part of the broader “series of U-turns” story line.
Even after dropping mandatory digital ID, kept pushing mandatory digital right-to-work checks.
Floated SEND changes that sparked an organised campaign warning ministers not to strip children’s legal rights.
Faced warnings a business-rates rise for pubs would close venues; signalled a climbdown.
Dropped the “mandatory” requirement for workers in another U-turn (Jan 2026).
Softened the farm/business inheritance-tax relief change by raising thresholds after months of protests.
Ended up doing damage-control comms on the farm inheritance-tax change (“tractor tax”) rather than landing a stable settlement.
Official target framed as 1.5m homes, while Reuters’ deep-dive showed forecasts implying a shortfall risk.
Independent tracking suggested the pace would miss the pledge without a major acceleration.
Emergency-appointment pay tweaks were dismissed by the BDA as “no new money”.
Faced criticism over delays and scope even after committing to the grooming-gangs inquiry.
Overhauled grid connections to purge “zombie projects”, acknowledging years of backlog dysfunction.
Told WASPI campaigners it would “reconsider” compensation with a hard deadline.
Proposed cutting jury trials for many cases via judge-only courts—scrapping a historic right to tackle the backlog.
Took until Dec 2025 to appoint a grooming-gangs inquiry chair/panel and publish draft terms.
Called China a “national security threat” while pushing deeper business ties—trying to have it both ways in a high-stakes relationship.
Great British Energy only set out its five-year plan in Dec 2025, leaning heavily on private capital to do the job.
Watered down “day-one” unfair-dismissal protection to a 6-month qualifying period.
Government press release explicitly set out the 24-months→6-months compromise after talks.
Reuters reported the softening as business-pushback driven; unions split on the climbdown.
ACAS guidance now reflects the 6-month rule, locking in the broken “day-one” pledge.
FT: MPs/union leaders called the dilution a manifesto breach and a capitulation to business.
Warned the plan to slash jury trials (expanding judge-only courts) could worsen unfairness/miscarriages for Black and minority ethnic defendants (a predictable own-goal).
Promised £150 bill cuts by scrapping ECO (insulation help for low-income homes), drawing fuel-poverty warnings.
Shifted most Renewables Obligation costs from bills to general taxation instead of fixing underlying pricing.
Allowed some new oil/gas field development despite the “no new licences” pledge, muddying signals.
Reuters noted Labour collapsing to under ~20% poll support at one point, a self-inflicted legitimacy problem.
Floated extending income-tax threshold freezes (stealth tax), stoking “manifesto breach” claims.
Asked the competition regulator to probe private dentistry pricing because NHS access had imploded.
Dentists’ trade body said queues were back and promised reforms still weren’t landing.
Pushed “default yes” homes around stations and threatened ministerial override of council refusals.
Let allies brief that Starmer would face down leadership bids and name possible challengers, then publicly distanced himself.
Reuters’ readout of the leadership-plot rumours moment: authority shaken, rift deepened, and MPs complaining of “bunker mentality”.
Exposed a surge in prisoners released by mistake (“each week”), with ministers calling it unacceptable.
Had to announce stronger release checks + an independent review after the spike in prisoners released by mistake.
Summoned prison chiefs to urgent meetings as wrongful releases became a rolling scandal.
Briefed/trailed extending the income-tax threshold freeze (a big revenue-raiser via fiscal drag).
Starmer refused to reaffirm the “no income tax/employee NI/VAT rises” manifesto pledge.
Pressed ahead with high-level China visits despite an espionage-trial outcry.
Had to tweak planning overhaul to curb legal challenges and council blocking, i.e. fix the fix.
Pitched compulsory digital ID for workers/right-to-work as anti-illegal-migration policy.
Sparked a Commons Library briefing scramble on the digital ID plan amid policy churn and inconsistent messaging.
Sold digital ID as an anti-illegal-migration fix, then walked it back under backlash pressure.
Independent analysis questioned whether Labour was actually on track to meet its waiting-time ambitions.
Launched the Hillsborough Law bill with big “duty of candour” rhetoric (Sept 2025).
Announced mandatory digital ID cards for all adults as an immigration measure (Sept 2025).
Reuters reported UK industrial power prices as a top barrier to net zero, with perverse subsidy incentives.
Lost homelessness minister Rushanara Ali after reports she evicted tenants and re-let at +£700/month.
Built a pattern of ministerial exits “under pressure” (Ali explicitly described as another embarrassing blow).
Settled claims linked to the leaked antisemitism dossier, reportedly costing ~£2m.
Parliament approved proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation (July 2025).
Forced the welfare reform bill through amid visible damage to authority and party unity.
Offered concessions (limiting cuts to new claimants) to head off the rebellion.
The concessions turned into another high-profile U-turn narrative for the government.
Faced an open revolt threat from Labour MPs over disability/sickness benefit changes.
Let welfare reform become a rolling whip-count crisis on its own benches.
Took the welfare fight into a high-stakes Commons showdown with sustained internal opposition.
Publicly signed up to 5% defence+security by 2035 without saying where the money comes from.
After building expectations, decided the China relations audit wouldn’t be published separately “in the national interest”.
Asked the National Crime Agency to chase historic grooming-gang cases, underlining earlier inertia.
Triggered (and then had to ride out) a wave of court challenges over the private-school VAT move.
Treasury confirmed the U-turn: restored payments to millions; £1.25bn cost.
Justified the winter-fuel U-turn by claiming finances had improved, contradicting earlier posture.
Let Gaza policy become an internal equality flashpoint (LMN survey: disquiet + Islamophobia concerns).
Industry warned government has “one moon shot” to sort energy costs and policy certainty, or it’s failure.
Ministers insisted universal winter fuel is dead, keeping the political wound open.
Planning bill provoked a Labour MP revolt over protected habitats/wildlife.
Refused to put a date on hitting 3% of GDP for defence, leaving the “ambition” as vibes.
U-turned on the grooming gangs inquiry and agreed to a national statutory inquiry (Jun 2025).
Floated mandating chemical castration for sex offenders as part of “freeing space” reforms.
Opened the door to earlier release / community-serving options that domestic-abuse groups warned could endanger survivors.
Cut/means-tested winter fuel payments, sparking backlash from Labour MPs and unions.
Starmer signalled a winter-fuel U-turn by widening eligibility after months of refusing to budge.
Briefed the China audit as “early June”, then ended up being delivered to parliament late June (missed expectation).
Reuters reported Starmer declined to condemn the jailing of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists at the G20—looked like moral silence for access.
Pursued tougher migrant-returns policy that drew criticism from rights groups and lawyers.
Left a vacuum long enough for fake “WASPI compensation” scams to proliferate.
Confirmed 91 prisoners freed in error since April 2025, with some still at large.
Announced >£5bn welfare cuts by 2029/30, provoking internal unrest.
Sold welfare cuts as “fairness” while MPs argued it failed disabled people.
Moved to slash/limit statutory consultees to speed housing, effectively admitting the system was jammed.
Boosted defence spending while cutting the international aid budget to pay for it.
Let the WhatsApp scandal escalate to a parliamentary standards investigation into Gwynne.
Suspended 11 Labour councillors tied to the “Trigger Me Timbers” group chat.
Suspended MP Oliver Ryan over the same WhatsApp group, widening the scandal.
Sacked and suspended junior health minister Andrew Gwynne over offensive WhatsApp messages.
Announced only “new local inquiries” on grooming gangs after pressure, not a statutory probe.
Lost Siddiq anyway when she resigned over the reputational damage/conflict optics.
Had an ethics adviser say “no breach” over Tulip Siddiq but still flag serious reputational risk—exactly the sort of appointment that should’ve been avoided.
Made the “anti-corruption” brief itself look farcical by giving it to someone engulfed by corruption-linked reporting.
Publicly backed Tulip Siddiq while she was under pressure over a Bangladesh corruption probe.
Talked up restoring the 18-week standard, while data showed every acute trust in England missing it.
Reuters pointed to CCC analysis saying the UK was off-track for net zero, highlighting the scale of the gap Labour inherited and hadn’t closed.
Quietly pared back the promised China audit into something less critical to smooth a “reset”.
Insisted there would be “no U-turn” on the farm tax during early protests.
Reuters’ Breakingviews framed the non-dom overhaul as a risky “lab rat” experiment for the rich-tax perk reform.
Appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador (Dec 2024), inviting predictable blowback.
Put Louise Haigh in cabinet, then had her resign after her fraud conviction resurfaced.
Took a reputational hit from Louise Haigh’s phone-fraud story right after promising “integrity”.
Forced an urgent transport secretary replacement within hours of Haigh’s resignation.
Introduced inheritance-tax changes hitting family farms, triggering the “tractor tax” backlash.
Farming protests repeatedly shut down central London as a visible political own-goal.
Companies flagged >£1bn extra labour costs tied to post-budget NIC/wage changes.
Tightened ministerial conduct/transparency rules after the donations row—because the original regime wasn’t enough for his own team.
Reeves raised employers’ National Insurance to 15% from April as a flagship revenue-raiser.
Froze/extended key thresholds in ways critics framed as stealth taxation (fiscal drag politics).
Put up capital gains tax rates in the first budget, landing a clear investor-facing tax hike.
Still tightened non-dom rules in the budget, explicitly betting it wouldn’t trigger a millionaire flight.
Delivered the biggest tax-raising budget in decades, blowing a hole in “no return to high tax” vibes.
Donor Waheed Alli was found to have breached parliamentary rules in the wake of the freebies row.
Ran another early-release tranche (40% point) that turned into a public farce moment mid-crisis.
Tried to dodge the manifesto “no NI rise” promise via semantics about “working people”.
Full Fact documented how the NI pledge was being interpreted and contested post-budget.
Let “CGT to 39%” speculation run hot enough that Starmer had to publicly swat it down.
Had to repay thousands in gifts (incl. high-profile hospitality) after public criticism of “freebies”.
VAT on private school fees was framed as a political gamble that split opinion hard.
Opened the door to dropping Lords reform/abolition promises (another flagship wobble).
Non-dom crackdown was reported internally as potentially raising nothing (or worse), risking a funding gap.
Watered down non-dom plans after “listening to concerns” (including exodus talk).
Walked into conference under pressure over winter-fuel cuts and donation-funded clothing/hospitality stories—self-inflicted political drag.
Announced he’d stop taking clothing donations only after the story detonated.
Broke parliamentary rules by not declaring donor-funded high-end clothing for Victoria Starmer (reported as a breach).
Announced expanded early release from Sept 2024 to avert a “breakdown of law and order” from overcrowding.
Suspended multiple Labour MPs for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap.
Had Starmer publicly concede the prisons situation was shocking/reckless enough to demand emergency moves.
Withdrew support from a Labour candidate caught up in the election betting investigation.
Drew a hard line against rejoining the EU single market/customs union, narrowing Brexit options.
Lost a Labour candidate mid-campaign after sexual-harassment allegations became a “distraction”.
Let the Diane Abbott candidature drift into public confusion, then reversed course after backlash.
Turned Abbott handling into a wider row about racism and internal discipline.
Barred/blocked at least one other left-wing figure from standing as Labour in 2024.
Dropped Faiza Shaheen as a Labour candidate in a high-profile selection row.
Abandoned the 2020 leadership pledge to abolish university tuition fees.
Explicitly ruled out scrapping the two-child benefit cap pre-election on affordability grounds.
Took direct control of selecting a candidate in Islington North to replace Corbyn.
Recast the “green prosperity” promise as ~£23.7bn over a whole term (~£5bn/yr).
Triggered a Commons meltdown over the Gaza ceasefire motion and amendments (Feb 2024).
Ditched the pledge to scrap private schools’ charitable status.
Dropped self-ID as Labour’s policy for Gender Recognition Act reform.
Accepted the line that water nationalisation “doesn’t stack up” under fiscal rules.
Formally barred Jeremy Corbyn from standing again as a Labour candidate.
Stepped away from backing free movement as part of its post-Brexit offer.
Sacked a shadow minister (Sam Tarry) after a picket-line dispute, escalating the row.
Softened/ditched long-held nationalisation commitments (rail/water/energy) in the “fiscal rules” era.
Walked away from a promise to “end outsourcing” in the NHS.
Banned frontbenchers from joining picket lines, picking a fight with parts of the labour movement.
Scrapped the £28bn-a-year green investment plan after championing it since 2021.
Rammed through a complaints-system overhaul that fuelled due-process backlash inside the party.
Proscribed four internal groups in 2021, exposing members to automatic expulsion.
Apologised and paid “substantial damages” in the Panorama whistleblower defamation settlement.
Flagged as off-track on the headline “1.5m homes” ambition, exposing delivery gaps.
Sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey from the shadow cabinet over sharing antisemitic material.