Towards the start of the Labour government’s tenure, this blog made the case that all non-populists should wish Starmer well, regardless of whether they voted Labour. If he was a successful Prime Minister, it would be good for the country generally and, in particular, head off the lure of Reform UK and populists generally.
Hopes were high. The antithesis of a dishonest populist, Starmer had previously held a big government job and would bring competence, process and transparency to his role undiluted by ego.
Solid but just not political enough…
Those hopes seem a long time ago. Taking, albeit minor, gifts, trying to place his former communications head as an ambassador, endless personnel changes handled charmlessly are bad enough, but the Mandelson hire is a real mess. The incompetence, lack of political nous in approaching him and the subsequent fallout is breathtaking. Why the hell was he given the job before being fully vetted? The media continues to feed off revelation after revelation, hysterically pushing Starmer to the brink. However, this blog has always argued the Mandelson saga and all the other missteps are not enough on their own to justify Starmer’s resignation as none of his colleagues would be any better at the job of PM. What a position to be in; the worst of all worlds and a terrible indictment of the quality of today’s politicians.
But…
It is Starmer’s overall inability to do the job of PM which may do for him in the end. Unprepared for government, incredibly he feels any specific political agenda is an unnecessary distraction from his job as, well, the political leader of his country. Need we say more…
Benefits reform has stalled, an anti-growth agenda introduced despite the rhetoric to support business, solutions to the social care crisis kicked into the long grass, house building becalmed, the defence review frozen. The list goes on. U-turns are commonplace as Starmer loses his nerve on policy after policy and the parliamentary majority, now skin deep, remains unused.
Starmer is simply not political enough and has squandered his election victory. The government has no direction, no agenda and has been rudderless since the start. That is his real failure, not Mandelson. He is the Labour equivalent of Rishi Sunak. Decent, basically competent but out of his depth when it comes to the art of politics.
The relatively competent conduct of foreign affairs in an almost impossible environment no longer seems enough. Domestic governance is so poor that Labour’s trajectory is to be wiped out in May’s local elections with the chances of turning things around before the General Election, not due for another three years, looking more difficult by the day.
So, what choice do we have? Labour’s lack of reality that blow hard, lightweight Andy Burnham or Angela ‘tell it as it is’ except on tax Rayner or failed infuriating former leader, Ed Miliband, is its and our saviour is for the birds. Today’s Tories and LibDems also offer very little. No wonder the electorate turns to extremes in frustration as will be shown by next week’s local elections (more on that after the results without the media’s hysteria about the wipeout of Labour…).
Against this backdrop, it still seems we should stick with Nurse Starmer for fear of something worse. But it feels like an increasingly big ask…
Inside Right Politics 