With enough results in from the town hall elections to show Labour is set for huge losses, Keir Starmer’s critics are already writing his obituary.
The first counts had barely been completed when his Labour opponents like former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he should prepare to go.
Other Labour MPs and grandees quickly joined in the “Starmer Out” rally cry. Labour’s Baroness Hazarika – nominated for a life peerage by Starmer – suggested he was in danger of doing the same damage to Labour that ailing Joe Biden did to the US Democrats before Donald Trump’s victory in 2024.
According to one report cabinet minister Ed Miliband has already told Starmer to prepare to step down. With cabinet friends like that…
It is hard to deny that it appears the days of Starmer’s premiership are numbered. But the question remains this: how is any replacement is going to make things better for Labour?
By sacking home secretary Shabana Mahmood for her tough immigration policies – as many left wing MPs want - when all opinion polls show it is a major concern of all voters, not just those on the right?
By further watering down chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden’s attempt to control the soaring Budget, when claims of widespread benefits waste and abuse is one of the reasons for the rise of Nigel Farage?
By giving more support to pro-Palestinian protests in the style of the Green’s charismatic but erratic leader Zack Polanski when Starmer dedicated the first years of his Labour leadership removing the stain of anti semitism of the Corbyn years?
It doesn’t stack up.
No one has yet produced a shred of evidence that any potential successor could do any better in terms of policy or personality. It is time they set out how they would in detail.
As for character and personality, does anyone seriously think that Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband or anyone else would represent an improvement on Starmer in terms of statesmanship or style?
I, for one, do not. They have all failed to live up to expectations in their own political careers in the past – spectacularly so, in some cases.
They will face exactly the same problems in their Downing Street in-tray that Starmer has confronted.
Starmer may not set the pulse racing but, for all his faults, he is decent and honest. And on the biggest call of all, the Iran war, he got it right, standing up to Donald Trump with courage and quiet dignity.
Until Stamer’s would-be successors can produce some convincing solutions instead of indulging in a petty blame game Labour MPs plotting his downfall should be careful what they wish for.
