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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Pressure mounts on Starmer to go

by New Worker correspondent

CALLS ON Keir Starmer to go are growing. Five government ministers resign, including Wes Streeting, the health secretary who has been manoeuvring to depose Starmer for some time, amid reports that more than 80 Labour MPs have privately or publicly urged the Prime Minister to step down. Starmer defiantly tells his diminishing band of followers that he has no intention of resigning as Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting prepare to battle it out when Starmer finally bows to the inevitable and hands in his resignation.

Andy Burnham was selected as Labour’s candidate for the by-election in the Makerfield constituency in north-west England this week. Burnham held one of Manchester’s seats in the House of Commons from 2001 to 2017. When Burnham made a bid for the Labour leadership following the 2015 general election he came a distant second to Jeremy Corbyn. He left the House of Commons to become mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. Burnham’s less than covert come-back campaign began last year when it was clear that the Starmer government was on the rocks. But under Labour rules the leader can only be replaced by a sitting member of parliament.

His first attempt to return to Westminster, through a by-election earlier this year, was thwarted by Labour’s National Executive Committee, which is dominated by Starmer’s followers and Blairites. Now that Committee has had second thoughts, and if Burnham does regain a seat in the House of Commons, he will certainly run for the Labour leadership.

Some say Burnham has done a “double-banking” deal with his Blairite rival, Wes Streeting, that would ensure that whoever wins the leadership race, the other gets the Number Two job in the Cabinet.

In the Starmer camp others say Sir Keir is digging in – pointing out that over 100 backbenchers and junior ministers have signed a statement arguing that it was “no time for a leadership contest”.

That’s not the view of Dan Hodges, a former Labour in sider who now writes for the Daily Mail. He says Starmer is indeed considering throwing in the towel.

Writing in the Mail last weekend Hodges cited an unnamed Cabinet minister as saying that Starmer “understands the political reality” and is considering arranging his departure on his own terms. “He realises the current chaos is unsustainable. He simply wants to be able to do it in a dignified way and in a manner of his own choosing. He will set out a timetable,” the source said. The newspaper said it remained unclear when such an announcement could come, with some of Starmer’s allies urging him to wait until after the Makerfield by-election.

He’s possibly holding out for a top job in a future Burn ham or Streeting government – maybe even Foreign Secretary. But what has he got to offer these days?

Graham Hryce, an Australian journalist, told the Russian media that “Starmer has never been anything other than a third-rate politician completely lacking vision. Unlike Tony Blair, who he somewhat woodenly resembles and tries to ape, Starmer lacks both charisma and political judgement. And unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer is utterly void of principle.

“Starmer started out as a Corbyn acolyte, who then destroyed his master’s political career – by levelling false allegations of anti-Semitism at him – in order to advance his own. He then pretended – unconvincingly – that he had never supported Corbyn’s political programme in the first place. It must be conceded that this pose was at least superficially plausible, but only because it was difficult to believe that Starmer had ever believed strongly in anything at all...

...after disposing of Corbyn, Starmer ruthlessly imposed his own anodyne agenda on the Labour Party and filled his Cabinet with com pliant nonentities like David Lammy, who continue to support him this week”.

Whatever happens the Remainers believe their time has, at long last, come. They’ve put the Common Market back on the agenda with Streeting making rejoining the European Union part of his campaign platform. Burnham’s more reticent as he knows this is a touchy subject in the constituency he hopes to represent. But he too is a Remainer and both he and Streeting know that on this issue they can count on the support of the Lib-Dems, the nationalists and the Remain er Tories when push comes to shove over a “second-referendum” in Westminster.