Politics Labour UK Politics

Yanis Varoufakis’ diagnosis of what’s wrong with the Labour party has a lot of people nodding furiously in agreement

Michael White. Updated October 4th, 2025

The Labour party conference dominated the news this week, coming after a – how can we describe it? – difficult first year in office.

Amid the week-long analysis, former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, appeared on BBC’s Newsnight, looking ahead to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget next month – which many of the signs suggest will be a tax-rising bloodbath.

And Varoufakis’ analysis of the party’s situation was fairly grim.

But one of his lines about Keir Starmer’s government really broke through, going viral on Twitter/X. Varoufakis said it in the context of whether Reeves will raise taxes – and on whom – but he opened it out to make a broader point, hinting at why Labour are struggling in the polls and public opinion.

He said:

And the problem with this government is not so much that that they are reluctant to break pre-election promises. They have done it. They have slashed disability payments. So, this is a government, a Labour government, that seems to have no problem treating with contempt the people who voted for it and to be courting at the very same time the people who never voted for them and never will.

His words seemed to strike a chord with many people.

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Of course, not everyone is a fan of Varoufakis intervening in UK politics.

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You can watch the whole segment here.

Source: Twitter/X/BBCNewsnight