Sir Keir Starmer has been deemed “incapable” of fixing Britain’s cost of living crisis as stark new figures show the burden on Britons is “far from over”.
Speaking to GB News, Political Commentator James Matthewson said there is “no hope” for the country at the moment under the Prime Minister’s leadership.
The bleak assessment comes as figures from Retail Economics show Britain’s poorest households have seen their finances deteriorate further since Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street.
Discretionary income, defined as money left after essential bills are paid, fell by 2.1 per cent for the least affluent households between Labour’s election victory in July 2024 and October 2025.
Reacting to the figures, Mr Matthewson said: “It’s simple, if you speak to anyone, everyone’s worse off. I think even older generations acknowledge that now of younger generations.
“If you go back 10 years, you had all that criticism of, ‘if you spent less on avocados or flat whites at your barista, then you could buy a house’ – even older people now understand that young people have it harder, because things are just so bad and the Government isn’t able to clamber out of this at the moment.”
He added: “It seems absolutely deadlocked on all sides by various pressure, everybody has a different idea of who’s to blame.
“And I think when you’re doing that, it’s very difficult to look forward to where you clamber out of this and where the kind of off ramp is for the Government to get back to what they should be doing.”
James Matthewson says Labour has ‘no hope’ for Britons at the moment
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GB NEWS / PA
Responding to Mr Matthewson, host Tom Harwood said: “It’s clear that one of the reasons, the 2.1 per cent decline in the living standards of the worst off, this is inflation. This is the cost of outgoings outstripping the cost of or the gain of incomings.
“And this is because energy bills are higher than they ought to be, the price of food on the shelves has gone up, inflation in Britain has been higher than other G7 countries, and a lot of economists who put that down to Government policy, Government spending, Government borrowing, these are inflationary things.”
Mr Matthewson argued: “The thing is, Tom, I still do believe, and it might be naive of me, but I still do believe that the Labour Party has the ability to fix these things.
“Lots of people think, they can’t do it, they’ve wasted their chance completely. I still think they can wrestle that back.
“But I don’t think they can do it with the current leadership, I don’t think Starmer’s capable of doing it. I think in a time where things were going fine and you wanted a bureaucrat, a middle manager to just keep things on the straight and narrow, Keir Starmer was your man, Rachel Reeves was your woman for that task. They are perfect status quo maintainers.”
The poorest households have seen their finances deteriorate further since Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street | PA/Retail Economics/CoPilot
He added: “But look, there’s no hope at the moment. I look across to the likes of New York City where we’ve just had the inauguration of Mayor Mamdani – look at the hope that is in the air over there.
“And actually, I was reminded during his inauguration by the singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus.
“She sang a song based on the the speech by Rose Schneiderman about bread and roses.
“And that is the message that the Labour movement should get back to. It’s not just about the bread, it’s not just about the necessity, it’s about the roses. It’s about the quality of life.”
Pressed by Tom on who he believes should lead the Labour Government instead, Mr Matthewson gave the name of the “one person” he thinks can do it.
Mr Matthewson told GB News: “I started this new year off promising to be more straightforward and not jump around and dance around issues, so I’m going to give you a name because I haven’t given anyone a name yet. It’s Angela Rayner.
Mr Matthewson told GB News that Angela Rayner is the ‘only person’ that could save the Labour Government
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GB NEWS
“She’s the only one, the only person around that leadership in the Labour Party who could come back. I think Andy Burnham could do it, but the road is very complex for him to get there. Angela Rayner could come back in and she could sort out this Government. She could.”
Interjecting the commentator, Tom quipped: “She could sort out this Government when she wasn’t able to sort out her own tax bill?!”
Mr Matthewson responded: “I knew that was coming. I don’t really care Tom, to be honest. You had Nadhim Zahawi and the Tory Government heating his stables for his race horses with taxpayer money, I couldn’t care less.
“At the end of the day, I want it sorted out. I want progressive politics in power. Angela Rayner, that’s the person to do it.”