The Labour party is pretty useless when it comes to getting rid of its leaders. That’s the only reason Keir Starmer is still squatting in Downing Street after an extraordinary 48 hours of resignations and plots. The PM is badly wounded, his premiership hanging by a thread, but there appears to be no one yet capable of delivering the fatal blow.
Part of the problem in trying to get shot of Starmer is that his would-be assassins know all too well the party’s chequered history of failed and aborted coups. It gives them cause to pause. The Labour party has never successfully mounted an official challenge against a serving prime minister. It is a point that Starmer, ‘Mr Rules’, knows all too well.
Those plotting a coup to get rid of Starmer can shout and scream all they like but they have little room to manoeuvre if he chooses not to quit
It had been widely reported, ahead of yesterday’s cabinet meeting that ministers were queuing up to tell the PM that his time was up. Starmer was having none of it, brushing aside any attempt to discuss his leadership. ‘The Labour party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered,’ the PM told his cabinet. And that was that. Starmer’s enemies round the table scuttled off, presumably to spend more time consulting the party rule book.
None of this should come as any surprise to students of Labour party history. This is a party with hatred of various kinds running through its veins. The hate Labour members feel for their enemies in other parties is a given – but a special form of hatred is reserved for its own kind, most of all its elected leaders. There is always one faction or other that is unhappy with the Labour leadership, which sooner or later is accused of ‘betraying’ party values. The party rule book is the only thing that allows its leaders to sleep safe in their beds.
Take the case of Jeremy Corbyn. It was hard at one point to keep track of how many times his own MPs tried to get rid of him. The doomed rebellion against Corbyn in 2016 illustrates all the difficulties involved. Shortly after the Brexit referendum, 21 members of the shadow cabinet quit; a number of junior shadow ministers were quick to follow suit. Corbyn went on to lose a vote of confidence among his MPs. Corbyn carried on regardless, knowing that he had the overwhelming support of party members. Starmer, as stubborn as Corbyn, will take heart from this.
The only time a Labour ‘coup’ has been successful is when Tony Blair (ironically the most successful Labour leader ever) was persuaded to voluntarily stand down in favour of Gordon Brown. In 2006 a group of disaffected Labour MPs including Tom Watson, then a junior minister, signed a letter calling on Blair to set a timetable for his departure. Blair initially denounced the campaign to oust him but later made clear that he would stand down within 12 months. Brown replaced Blair in June 2007. This is a one-off in Labour history for a number of reasons. Brown was an obvious successor and had been waiting to inherit the top job for a decade. There is no Brown equivalent, ready and waiting, this time round. More reason for Starmer to feel he can cling on.
Brown himself suffered plenty of attempted coups, even though he was in Downing Street for just three years. He refused to budge as PM and leader despite several ministerial resignations. In June 2009, five cabinet ministers, together with a number of junior ministers, resigned in quick succession after a disastrous set of local and European election results. One senior minister, James Purnell, publicly called for Brown to go. It all came to nothing. Brown only resigned after he lost the 2010 general election.
Those plotting a coup to get rid of Starmer can shout and scream all they like but they have little room to manoeuvre if he chooses not to quit. All he has to do is clutch the party’s rule book close, knowing it is stacked against his opponents. To dislodge a Labour leader a challenger needs the support of 20 per cent of the party’s MPs. The magic number this time round is 80. And his opponents differ both on how they want Starmer to depart – whether immediately or within the next months – and who would be best suited to succeed him. To cap it all off, they know that, when it comes to wielding the knife, they are just as likely to end up stabbing each other first. Paralysis reigns.
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