Will we one day look back at Sir Keir Starmer’s disastrous prime ministership with something like nostalgia?
Might we come to see his ill-starred stint in No 10 as shipwrecked sailors recall a nasty squall before the deadly hurricane that destroyed their ship, and left them utterly stranded?
I suspect so. Starmer is arrogant, untrustworthy, incompetent and weak. He is by far the worst prime minister in my lifetime (I omit Liz Truss from consideration). I long to see the back of him – and so apparently does much of the nation.
But what if his successor were even worse? What if this person set out with even more determination than Sir Keir to destroy the wealth-creators in our country, empower the trade unions and give comfort to our enemies?
Step forward Angela Rayner – the woman who notoriously described Tories as ‘scum’. She was one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies, and served loyally in his shadow cabinet from 2016 to 2019. Here is the most likely next prime minister of our country.
And it may not be long. Two things are clear after the Government was forced to eviscerate its modest welfare bill in the Commons on Tuesday evening at a cost of some £5 billion, which will be borne by the taxpayer.
One is that respect for Starmer’s authority has dwindled among many Labour MPs. Rachael Maskell, a leading Labour welfare rebel, said that the virtual abandonment of the bill by the Government saw a ‘change in power’ away from Sir Keir as the legislation ‘disintegrated before our eyes’.
The other lesson of Tuesday is that the parliamentary Labour Party is more militantly Left-wing than many observers had assumed. It won’t allow the Government even to trim ballooning welfare expenditure this side of the next election. A number of Labour MPs, including Maskell, have called for higher taxes on the better off.
Here is an extraordinary thing. Many on the Right correctly regard Starmer as being significantly to the Left of Tony Blair. The Government he leads has raised taxes and genuflected in front of human rights law. Like previous Labour administrations, it is addicted to tax and spend.
Outwardly Angela Rayner remains loyal to Starmer, and yesterday repeated her insistence on Lorraine Kelly’s daytime TV show that she doesn’t want to be Prime Minister. Good God, no! writes Stephen Glover
But lots of the party’s MPs regard the PM as too Right-wing. They can’t abide even his half-hearted attempts to cut the welfare budget. They think he sounds too Right-wing on Israel and is too chummy with President Trump. They don’t like the sound of his anti-immigration rhetoric, some of which Starmer has recently disowned.
Tuesday’s rebellion wasn’t entirely about welfare. It was an expression of disapproval by many Labour MPs fed up with this enormously unpopular Prime Minister. They fear he is leading them towards an electoral bloodbath in which most of them will lose their seats.
So who better than Angela Rayner to save them? She, not the more moderate though milksop Wes Streeting, is the heir apparent. Outwardly she remains loyal to Starmer, and yesterday repeated her insistence on Lorraine Kelly’s daytime TV show that she doesn’t want to be Prime Minister. Good God, no!
This canny – if intellectually wanting – politician is positioning herself. The Deputy Prime Minister is said to have brokered the deal with rebels on Tuesday, effectively kiboshing the Government’s welfare bill. Already she looks as though she is in charge.
Meanwhile, despite previous opposition from Starmer, Rayner is reported to have finally succeeded in acquiring a fully fledged Deputy Prime Minister’s office in the Cabinet Office with space for 30 staff. She is advertising her importance.
How can Sir Keir fight her off? Without achieving success he can’t, and success isn’t in prospect. The economic growth on which the Government has set its heart won’t materialise. The Office for Budget Responsibility has just admitted that its very modest growth forecasts have been too optimistic.
There will be more tax rises in October – that is certain. Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden accepted yesterday that there will be ‘financial consequences’ to Starmer’s capitulation on the welfare bill, and refused to rule out tax increases.
Starmer will of course sacrifice Rachel Reeves in a hopeless attempt to save himself. From the start of Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, the Chancellor appeared tearful, and the tears appeared to stream ever faster after Sir Keir refused to guarantee that she would remain in her job.
A spokesman for Reeves claimed a ‘personal matter’ was the explanation for her unusual behaviour. Perhaps so. But losing your job is pretty personal. She must know she is doomed, and is unlikely to draw much comfort from No 10’s subsequent assertion that she enjoys the PM’s ‘full backing’.
Starmer is a ruthless character, even by the standards of high politics. A cold fish. He must have known what people, including Reeves, would make of his refusal to endorse her in the Commons.
Starmer is a ruthless character, even by the standards of high politics. A cold fish, writes Stephen Glover
Because he is essentially weak and pliable, he will give in to the inevitable backbench demands for higher taxes for the better off. It may buy him some time but I doubt it will save his job.
No, Rayner is in the ascendancy. So long as she doesn’t make any mistakes, her day is coming. There are many people, including perhaps even some on the Right, who will welcome her over Starmer. Unlike him, she knows what she believes, and works hard to achieve her ambitions.
Nowhere has this been plainer than in her championing of greater workers’ rights. Starmer has allowed her to pursue her dream, presumably in the hope that it would keep her busy and reduce her scope for plotting against him. He has been shamefully oblivious to the harm that it will cause the economy.
Measures include protections against instant dismissal from the first day of employment and a ban on zero-hours contracts. By the Government’s own cautious calculation, the cost to businesses will be some £5 billion a year. I daresay it’ll be much more. Smaller companies, already hard-pressed because of higher taxes, will suffer most.
If Angela Rayner becomes Prime Minister, all of Starmer’s mistakes will be magnified. There will be more tax and more government spending. The trade unions will be rampant. Net zero will be on steroids. As for illegal immigration, there’s no reason to believe she will be more effective than Sir Keir.
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Labour coming to power. Only one year! So much needless damage done, so much more disillusionment with the political process.
Think of the harm that the uncouth, politically extreme, economically illiterate Angela Rayner could inflict over three or four years. It would be like being on a locked train hurtling towards the buffers with no possibility of escape.
I’ve little doubt that, whoever is in charge, Labour will bankrupt the country as our deficit widens and foreigners are no longer prepared to lend the Government money at affordable rates. The crash, though, would be worse under Rayner.
We must be careful what we wish for. Another four years of Sir Keir Starmer is a nightmare. But having the unspeakable Angela Rayner installed in No 10 would be a new order of catastrophe.
