As I expected, Morrgan McSweeney has gone.
I remain quite sure that Starmer will go.
And in the short term, there will be a cost to this. There are three obvious ones.
First, the pound is likely to dip in value. That has a short-term inflationary impact. It will be short-term, but it will happen.
Second, this means interest rates will still be too high when we need them to fall. The Bank of England will say there is an inflation risk now, and people will pay the price in higher mortgage and other borrowing costs, as will businesses, and the government itself.
Third, if Reeves reacts as she usually does, with the backing of the Treasury, which is accustomed to deliver austerity whenever it can, then public services might also be punished. Remember, another fiscal event is coming up in early March. It could be costly for those in need while uncertainty remains.
This is why I have suggested an alternative plan Labour needs to adopt here.
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Blair, Mandelson, McSweeney and the rest have gutted the labour party. Labour is no different than the Tories/Garage spouting the only mantra is yet more austerity because the market rules and we can’t afford it.
As for Bailey regrettably no one will have the gumption to sack him and drop the mad “inflation target”.
The UK elites don’t give a shit about “ordinary” people.
“The UK elites don’t give a shit about “ordinary” people.”
A lot of truth in that John. Which is why we should have a highly devolved and minarchist system which lets ordinary people care about each other, and which keeps central government in its lane.
Interesting where this could go.
On the subject of Reeves, there was an article in the Telegraph today claiming the treasury have urged Reeves not to deliver her spring statement, because the treasury dont wont to upset the markets.
I do not know the full implications of this – which is why I read this blog. This, however, is not right surely.
As for McSweeney – are the dominoes finally falling?
Reeves has no choice but deliver. I don’t believe the story.
And yes the dominoes are falling but I still think Starmer goes in May.
Both Adam Bienkov and Peter Obourne in the Byline Times have charted Morgan McSweeney’s role in government from the start of Starmer’s election victory in July 2024. It makes for very unsettling and disturbing reading.
What a horrible figure.
Did you hear the comment from an unnamed Labour MP (Luke Akehurst perhaps?) regretting McSweeney’s departure, stating that it represents:
“full steam ahead to uber-woke, net-zeroist, rejoinerism”
A most extraordinary thing said from a “Labour” MP. This is where McSweeney and “Blue Labour” has ended up. Terrible, terrible.
Utterly atrocious.
Sounds like Luke Akehurst.
I’ve suspect Starmer knows he’s out of his depth and might resign sooner than May. Losing Gorton and Denton could obviously trigger it but I have a gut feeling the blokes just had enough which ever way it goes
Your instinct seems right – never let a crisis go to waste. A National Government? – maybe not but if Labour had someone with political instinct to grab the opportunity there could be a possibility to introduce an emergency ‘clean up’ bill.
Bring in independent advisers from Institute for Government and / or academics – to do an immediate constitutional reform- outlaw private money donations, 2nd jobs, revolving doors. A standing parliamentary Constitution and Corruption Committee with real teeth . And change the voting system to pr
There has been no inclination among Tories or Labour to clean up the system – but it could just be possible if enough MP’s start to see the abyss ahead of them – and acknowledge than the public’s view ‘ they are all in it for themselves’ has some foundation in fact.
But all this seems most unlikely
I am afraid you are probably right.
But I can dream.
The problem is, as people, including Richard here, point out, the cancer in the party goes right to the heart. I left Labour because I saw it close up with our local authority and our local MP. Self serving policies, nest feathering, and endless lies and smears were the New Labour order of the day. Anyone to left of Tebbit was accused of being a ‘far left entryist’ – despite the fact they’d been loyal members for years, some for decades.
The media, as long as it suited them , went along with the lies, the McCarthyite ‘anti-semitism’ witch hunt, during which many Jewish members were ejected – accused of anti semitism. But now, they are looking to oust a Labour Prime minister, the dream of everyone in the right wing press.
The party under Starmer and has sidekick sunk to a new low, and as pointed out, those with ‘influence’ promoted over those with ability, leaving a very shallow pool of talent indeed.
For the electorate though, the biggest sin has been, since day one, that a Labour govt simply carried on where a useless Tory one left off. When you add in the cronyism, legislation that ‘might’ have proved vote winning watered down to the point of being worthless at big businesses request, and now Starmers number one advisor (it’s been forgotten that Mandelson was on his team from as early as 2020) being outed as an even bigger scumbag than even we thought, Starmer is a zombie pm.
He should go, he needs to go, but someone as shallow and selfish as him will, underneath, see no reason why he should.
I mean we all make ‘little’ mistakes don’t we….
In 2008, Labour was brought down by a financial system it failed to get to grips with.
In 2026, Labour is being brought down by corruption it failed get to grips with.
All because it lacked the courage to do the right thing.
And in doing so gifts us to the 2010 Tory government and austerity and next, God knows what – Reform, a Reform/Tory team? And someone somewhere in the U.S. is having a real laugh at our expense. Guess who?
Maybe Starmer now has to face the music and pivot towards a more traditional Labour way of doing things. Maybe he now has no choice? I mean, he is known for his capriciousness.
We need Labour to do what the Tories did under their long list of shit leadership (you know the names): they need to stay in power. The alternatives are simply too awful to contemplate.
I hear you…..
But allowing this corrupt ship to remain afloat …. but the corruption is deep and neoliberal to the core and hasn’t addressed the needs of their constituents for ~50 years. ….. or is it time to have an alternative?
I agree: avoiding Reform has got to be good for most people. Is there time for a more effective party / system?
I guess, that’s my hope. RM did lay out some pretty good starting points earlier today….
I’m curious, which specific regulatory or policy decisions do you believe Labour could have implemented between 1997 and 2008 that would have materially reduced the impact of a US-originated financial crash? How would these measures have mitigated the transmission of the US subprime crisis to the UK banking system, and through what mechanism?
State funding of political parties.
Controlling tax haven flows.
Capital controls.
The basic problem was the party now being wedded to neoliberalism. As a result, exactly as the USA did, key legislation that had been in place for decades was watered down or done away with completely. So called ‘light touch’ became the order of the day.
Its interesting to note that in the USA, much of that legislation had been in place since the collapse of 1929. Showing, conclusively, that we never learn as with a few years of those checks and balances being removed – the markets crashed again.
The problem though, has not gone away. The Cameron and subsequent Conservative govts failed to implement all the recommendations for new safeguards or watered down the few they did put in place. This govt is talking the same ‘light touch’ talk.
Hence, many suspect another crash is on the way….
Glass Steagall went under Clinton.
Labour were always going to be failing economically for reasons you well document Richard. The bizarre thing is, why do people embedded in the neo liberal economic model, think it’s going to produce different results because we have a red team in charge instead of the blue!
But Labour are at this particular mess, namely Peter Scandalson (I cannot claim credit) because of the factionalism within Labour.
The New Labourites thought they had shuffled old embarrassing socialist grandpa up into the attic never to be seen again. Then, in 2016, the more democratically adopted system allowed that grandpa out. Yikes!
Despite the undermining and backstabbing, the word socialist wouldn’t go away. How utterly embarrassing!
In the end, it took a non ideological MP, who could imitate moderateness, to be seen as a way to get embarassing old grandpa socialist out once and for all. (Disclaimer: embarrassing old grandpa socialist is not intended to be Corbyn, just New Labour’s embarrassing past they wish would go away)
In the end, the right and centre of the Labour party, prominently led by a very vocal and vexxed Scandalson, won out.
This non ideological MP/PM, rewarded those who helped him into power, thinking they once again had secured Labour for anyone other than those old embarrassing socialist relatives…uurgh!
Long live Neo liberal 3rd way Labour. Where’s Dr Frankenstein, let’s revive the monster…
Surely if Starmer goes and it seems now to be a case of when, not if, Rachel Reeves goes with him?
We’ve no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but I seem to remember Harriet Harmon acting as caretaker leader quite effectively. Could the same not happen now? Lucy Powell is Deputy Leader and relatively untarnished other than the rubbish she is putting out about Gorton and Denton.
Clive Lewis seems the best potential leader within the current PLP and there are others like Dawn Butler capable of stepping up to cabinet roles. If the current leadership falls, there may be less fear amongst the new intake to appoint someone more left wing.
The other scenario is that the Labour party implodes and the factions divide.
On this blog, many commentators have expressed disappointment with Labour, and with Keir Starmer in particular. I may have missed some comments, but who do you realistically think should replace Starmer if he goes, and should a general election then be called?
(For context, Labour repeatedly called for a general election when successive Conservative prime ministers were replaced mid-parliament.)
Good points. I didn’t vote Labour at the last election and didn’t have high expectations,but they have been much worse than I expected. However, given Reform have yet to be exposed for what they really are, and the Greens are yet to show what they could be,now is a seriously bad time for an election
Richard & Others
My instincts are changing govt now is pointless and I think changing PM equally so. The situation wouldn’t improve & might easily be worse.
I have little time for New/Blue Labour but there are decent MPs and councillors to consider in all this.
What’s to be done?
1. Forget the current legislative programme except in matters of defence & energy & infrastructure
2. Do some high profile changes to clean up our politicians & institutions MPs roles, lobbying, donations etc.
3. Fundamental Reform of the Electoral Commission so that it is more enforcement orientated & quicker.
4. Use govt to reduce the cost of living eg Rail fares eg Council Tax eg Child Care hours eg Energy bills eg Water bills.
5. Instruct the BoE to reduce interest rates to ECB levels for 5 years or at least the life of the parliament. Circa 2.15%.
These things would help with cost of living & improve the health of our politics.