Things are moving very fast in Westminster this evening. More than 60 Labour MPs are publicly calling on the Prime Minister to announce a date for his departure. The stream of these calls has ebbed and flowed in recent days – but the profile of the MPs has strikingly changed. On Friday night, it was the soft left out for Keir Starmer’s head; this evening it is the Labour right. Junior aides are now quitting the government, and resigning from their positions as parliamentary private secretaries (PPS). Three did so in quick succession this evening: Joe Morris, Sally Jameson and Tom Rutland, the respective PPSs for Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood and Emma Reynolds.
It is, in the words of one MP, ‘all one-way traffic, heading to the exit.’
All three were viewed as Labour moderates, close to their different ministers. Both Streeting and Mahmood are big beasts in the cabinet; one wonders how much coordination they had with their subordinates.
There is an urgency to some of the calls we are hearing today. A number of MPs who are demanding Starmer quit are seen as close allies of Streeting, including Chris Curtis, the chairman of the Labour Growth Group, Jas Athwal, his Ilford neighbour, and Alan Gemmell. There is an element of code in the varying calls for a contest. Joe Morris has called for a ‘swift’ timetable for the contest, for which Streeting would be the biggest beneficiary. Those on the soft left want an ‘orderly transition’ which means sufficient time for Andy Burnham to return to parliament.
Another striking thing from today’s events is the lack of any counter-operation from No. 10. The number of loyalists making positive statements can be counted on one hand. Indeed, one comment put out by the Labour MP Lauren Sullivan this evening was initially misread by a number of journalists as yet another letter calling for Starmer to quit, such is the volume of calls for him to go. With the number of public critics now nearing the key threshold of 80, there are few defenders of the PM left to speak in his favour. Where is the wave of support we saw when Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to quit? Where are the Labour leader’s outriders in the media and parliament? It is, in the words of one MP, ‘all one-way traffic, heading to the exit.’
The resignation of PPSs is a warning shot from the higher ranks: should Starmer not heed it, then ministerial exits seem likely. It is clear that the Prime Minister’s position is becoming increasingly untenable.
At the King’s Speech on Wednesday, Starmer hoped to unveil a new agenda for the next chapter in his Labour government. Instead, that set piece looks like a swansong: the last significant moment in a premiership plagued by instability and uncertainty.
Comments