With two days to go before voters take to the ballot box, leadership manoeuvring, that perennial Westminster pastime, has slipped into a higher gear. Allies of Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting have been making the rounds among ever more febrile backbenchers. And their respective teams are at work to ensure plans are in place should the first blow be struck amid what many are bracing to be a local election bloodbath. So grave is the mood that Rayner has even quit vaping. One can only wonder if booze will be next after she was alleged to have drunkenly crashed into the door of parliament’s Strangers bar last week…
Meanwhile, over in Downing Street, an operation to Save Sir Keir Starmer is in full swing. The Prime Minister is contemplating another reset speech, stuffed with suitably ‘radical’ offerings, in the hope of wooing back a restless party. Yet the more immediate tactic, Mr S hears, is rather less high-minded. Friends of the Prime Minister are having quiet words in the ears of troublesome 2024 intake MPs, warning their future hopes and dreams of climbing the greasy pole of political promotions will be squandered entirely should they back the wrong horse and should that horse crash at the first hurdle.
Let’s be honest, few inducements are more potent in Labour circles than the glittering offering of a trade envoy title or the chance to serve as a dutiful PPS. A Labour source told Mr S:
‘Everyone in the party knows that if you have a leadership election without taking care, you end up with someone like Corbyn. It would be a brave ’24 intake to kick off that journey, because they would spend the rest of their career being responsible for wherever that destination turned out to be.
Starmer’s allies insist the Cabinet remains ‘settled’ for now, with any early strikes likely to erupt from the backbenches rather than the front line. Even so, there is little attempt to sugar-coat expectations. The local election results are widely tipped to be ‘appalling’, according to No. 10 insider and ‘there could be an emotional reaction’. Let’s hope doors aren’t involved…
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