In normal times, five election-winning, center-left political leaders from around the world, gathered in an imposing marbled hall in London, would be a stirring show of strength for champions of liberal politics.
Instead, the prime ministers, who include Canada’s Mark Carney, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, and Britain’s Keir Starmer, are meeting on Friday at a moment when their brand of progressive politics has rarely seemed more endangered.
Fickle voters, stagnant economies and a polarizing debate over immigration have left center-left governments vulnerable to right-wing populists. In the United States, the Democratic Party is limping in the political wilderness, unable, as yet, to formulate a persuasive message to counter President Trump.
Mr. Starmer, in a speech to the meeting, the Global Progress Action Summit, made an impassioned case for progressive politics in the face of a stiff challenge from Nigel Farage, whose anti-immigrant party, Reform U.K., holds almost a double-digit lead in polls over Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party.
With anxieties about immigration on the rise, the prime minister balanced that message by announcing a compulsory digital ID plan, which proponents say could deter illegal migrant workers.
“This is the defining political choice of our times,” Mr. Starmer said. The populist right is offering “a politics of predatory grievance, preying on the problems of working people and using the infrastructure of division,” he said, and the country should instead embrace “the politics of patriotic renewal. Rooted in communities, building a better country.”
The meeting comes “as citizens across the world are increasingly rejecting mainstream politics,” said Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning British think tank that organized the summit with Labour Together and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a left-leaning Washington-based research institute.
Mr. Starmer, who last week hosted Mr. Trump, will get the chance to hear from the president’s opponents in the United States, including Gov. JB Pritzker, Democrat of Illinois, and Pete Buttigieg, who served as secretary of transportation in the Biden administration.
For Democrats attending the meeting, it may also be a chance to begin honing a political playbook for a post-Trump era. Among the issues discussed will be a progressive response to the tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump.
“The focus is on meeting voters where they are, which is the cost of living and inflation,” said Fred Hochberg, who led the Export-Import Bank of the United States under President Barack Obama. “That’s where progressives need to focus.”
For Mr. Starmer, who swept into power 14 months ago, the gathering falls at a time of acute political peril. Despite some success on the global stage, a succession of missteps and recent resignations have left doubts hanging over his leadership, as Labour convenes for its annual conference on Sunday.
A potential rival to Mr. Starmer, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, broke ranks this week, setting out an alternative, more leftist vision for Labour in two interviews. Mr. Burnham is unlikely to mount a leadership challenge to the prime minister any time soon — he would first need to secure a seat in Parliament — but the attention he generated underscored Mr. Starmer’s weakness.
Labour members will also have to choose a new deputy leader, following the resignation of Angela Rayner, who also served as deputy prime minister, because of a tax imbroglio. The contest has become a referendum on Mr. Starmer, with his critics weighing whether to vote against his preferred candidate.
The Labour Party, some analysts argue, was unprepared for power after last year’s election, lulled by the chaos of their Conservative predecessors, who lurched through five prime ministers in seven years.
“The Labour Party made the mistake of thinking, ‘If we simply govern competently that’s a huge bonus for the country and the country will be pleased,’” said John McTernan, a political strategist and former aide to Tony Blair, a Labour prime minister. Instead, he said, stable government was the minimum expectation of voters.
With inflation yet to be tamed and few tangible signs of an improvement in health care, voters remain frustrated by the slow pace of change. Others argue that Mr. Starmer’s technocratic style and pedestrian communication skills have left many voters unsure of the government’s direction.
Claire Ainsley, a former policy director for Mr. Starmer, said the government faced a formidable economic challenge, having inherited a torpid economy, underinvestment in public services and high levels of debt. The task confronting Mr. Starmer, she said, was to chart a clearer political path.
Beyond that, center-left parties need to do a better job of dramatizing the costs of populist policies, according to Neera Tanden, chief executive the Center for American Progress Action Fund, who served in the Biden administration.
“In our country the divisive rhetoric, the nationalist rhetoric, can be very appealing,” Ms. Tanden said. But, she added, “The Trump administration’s policies are harming working class people disproportionately — it’s their health care that’s being lost, their utility prices that are going up. I think it’s a warning sign to the world.”
Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe.
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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