Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have gone mad. It is the only rational explanation.
After 12 short but tumultuous months, the pressures of government have finally become too great. The weight of the seals of office are crushing them. As a result of which, corporate insanity is now engulfing Downing Street.
The evidence underpinning this grim prognosis is the launch over the weekend of what will go down as the most catastrophically ill-judged political re-set in British history.
According to a briefing from senior aides of the Chancellor, she is indeed preparing to renege on her pledge not to raise taxes. And when she does so, she intends to point the finger of blame squarely at her own colleagues. In particular, those Labour MPs who successfully rebelled over the welfare reforms. ‘This is a direct consequence of what happened,’ a senior ally said. ‘It’s the reality of the situation. They have to own that.’
They. Have. To. Own. That. Mark the phrase. Because those words are set to be carved on Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ tombstones. Actually, it won’t be their tombstones, but a giant, granite mausoleum. A monument to the staggering hubris, naivety and incompetence of the Labour administration.
Between 1992 and 1997 I worked for Labour in opposition. And all oppositions pursue broadly the same key strategy. They attempt to portray their opponents as feckless, or corrupt. Maybe callous.
But there is one objective that overrides all others. Which is to try to frame the Prime Minister of the day as a prisoner of their own party.
With John Major, Labour successfully declared it was the ‘Eurosceptics’ who held him prisoner, though he coined a more robust moniker for them. David Cameron expertly portrayed Tony Blair as a hostage to his backbenchers over education reform. Theresa May was destroyed when it became clear The Spartans – hardline Brexiteers – and not the Cabinet were effectively running the country.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem to think they will gain public approval for their overt abdication of responsibility
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s proposal to axe the two child-benefit cap is now ‘dead in the water’
Yet Kemi Badenoch is not going to need to lay the charge Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves aren’t in control of their own Government. Because Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are doing it for her. And shouting from the rooftops: ‘Don’t blame us! We’re not running the country, Diane Abbott and her Left-wing colleagues are!!!’
That is literally Downing Street’s new masterplan. Here are two more quotes that were carefully planted over the weekend. According to a No.10 source, the welfare revolt means the Prime Minister’s proposal to axe the two child-benefit cap is now ‘dead in the water’. A No.11 source added, ‘MPs will need to acknowledge that there is a financial cost to not approving the welfare changes, whether that’s tax rises or not scrapping the two-child benefit cap.’
Some people may support the retention of the two-child cap. Others may oppose it. But that’s irrelevant. All that matters is that the Prime Minister and Chancellor are now acknowledging – not conceding, but openly boasting – that their Government’s whole policy agenda is no longer being dictated by them, but by the fickle consciences of Labour MPs.
We’re not talking marginal matters like the Cycle Tracks Act or the Deer Bill. We’re concerned here with taxation policy. Welfare policy. The Government’s entire fiscal policy. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are actively advertising that these fundamental areas of our national governance now lie outside their control.
What’s more, they genuinely seem to think they will gain public approval for their overt abdication of responsibility. It’s political insanity.
Last week the Government hit the buffers, as the welfare capitulation and Rachel Reeves’ tears encapsulated what the polls show is the worst first full year for a government in living memory.
All administrations experience dire moments. And there are tried-and-tested techniques by which a Prime Minister can extricate themselves from them.
Between 1992 and 1997 I worked for Labour in opposition, writes Dan Hodges, pictured with mum Glenda Jackson. And all oppositions pursue broadly the same key strategy
The most well-worn is to simply ‘blame the other lot’. Mrs Thatcher’s constant evocation of the Winter of Discontent left Labour effectively unelectable for decades. Blair and Brown traded for years off memories of the Black Wednesday sterling crisis.
But Rachel Reeves has now vetoed that approach. Spooked by the fear she overplayed her hand by raising the spectre of the £22 billion Tory black hole so gratuitously and recklessly it undermined the economy, she has reverted to asserting the Tory mess has already been neatly tidied away.
Another standard approach is to blame the vagaries of the ‘international economy’. And given the global upheaval precipitated by Trumponomics, there would be some legitimacy to that claim. But Keir Starmer has spent the last few months doing precisely the opposite, bragging about how his unique relationship with ‘Donald’ has insulated the UK from the worst excesses of the US tariff reforms.
Then there is the third option. The good old fashioned mea culpa. The Prime Minister and Chancellor simply hold up their hands, admit mistakes were made, insist they have listened and learnt, and promise not to repeat them.
But for some reason, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem to believe such an admission is beneath them. That by doing so they will destroy their credibility and authority (apparently oblivious to the fact their credibility and authority have been already been shredded to the point of immodesty). This is what led us to the surreal spectacle of Rachel Reeves claiming the U-turn on winter fuel payments was a result of her ‘stabilising’ the economy.
So instead, Starmer and Reeves are set to embark on the most misguided, irrational and – frankly – deranged attempt at political rehabilitation since President Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania thought ‘all this situation needs is a few words from me out on the balcony’ shortly before he was executed.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor are not going to try and blame the country’s political plight on their much unloved predecessors. But instead point the finger of responsibility directly at their own MPs and party.
They are not going to cite turmoil within the international economy. But instead shine the spotlight on the infighting and back-biting on their own backbenches.
And rather than even maintain any pretence of effectively leading the nation they were elected to serve with a majority of over 170 just a year ago, they are instead planning to tear up their pledges to the British people on tax, welfare reform and fiscal probity. Then literally declare ‘Nothing to do with us guv. See all those people wearing Labour rosettes? They made us do it.’
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have decided their route to political salvation is to admit it’s Diane Abbott and company, rather than them, who are now running Britain. Let’s see what Britain thinks about that.
