“It is a pity that Labour advisers around Keir Starmer are not as focussed on damaging our real political opponents, rather than trying to kneecap members of our own government.”
So said a Labour backbencher I spoke to this week, following the recent debacle of Number Ten briefings against Health Secretary Wes Streeting, which, far from undermining the MP for Ilford North, actually gave him a series of pre-planned media appearances to not only hit back at the hit job, but elevate his standing and reputation as a future party leader.
Streeting himself cited former Leader of the House, now Labour’s Deputy Leader, Lucy Powell and Education Minister Bridgette Phillipson as previous victims of this internal skulduggery – and prior to that Louise Haigh had been forced to resign her post as Transport Minister for an admitted misdemeanour committed many years ago – despite the Prime minister apparently being aware of the offence before he appointed her to the cabinet.
With its economic inheritance shocking, the prison crisis at breaking point, and immigration out of control, there are enough mitigating circumstances for the government to cling on to, as their poll numbers plummet and voters express their impatience at the lack of pace in terms of the Change Labour promised.
However, Keir Starmer and his team can have no excuse for continuing the Westminster psychodrama that we endured in the post Brexit Tory years, through May, Johnson, Truss, and Sunak. Less drama was what the PM promised and ought to have delivered – and he has failed.
From his own misjudgement of accepting free suits and specs, through to the team around him in Downing Street acting like political novices, Westminster bubble fluff has continued to dominate the headlines as he and they have failed to step up from opposition to government.
Morgan McSweeney and those around him did Labour a great service in ridding their party of Corbynistas – and indeed Corbyn himself. However, having the skill set to sort out the internal challenges of a political party are entirely different to those needed to govern a country.
Perhaps Keir needs to find his close ally McSweeney a job more suited to his abilities and recruit someone with grey hair to support him in running the government. After all, in the area where Starmer is seen as being most successful – on the international stage – he appointed Jonathan Powell, former aide to Tony Blair as his key right-hand person. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
To be fair to Starmer and his cabinet, it seems to me that many of the 2024 intake of Labour MPs were not ready for government. They appear to have a collective breakdown whenever presented with the realities of the challenges the UK must face up to, sooner rather than later.
We cannot continue to splurge billions of pounds on welfare benefits. Soaking the rich in terms of taxes is not an option, the fantasy with which many of them comfort themselves, as evidenced by the latest figures of the deluge of millionaires leaving the country. And, if they are squeamish about the policies the impressive Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is offering to get on top of border control, then they will be horrified at what will come next, should Labour not recover in the polls.
So, if Labour is to get back on track, reconnect with the electorate, and ensure it is not a one-term government, the message to Starmer’s team and Labour backbenchers is the same. Grow up, get behind a serious programme for change, and start focussing on governing, rather than doing each other in.
