Rayner has gone, brought down by kompromat.
Mandelson will go. It is just a matter of time.
So, who is next? Might it be Starmer?
It would not surprise me. We know he made considerable errors of ethical judgment on his way to being prime minister (think donated glasses, think freebie suits, think Arsenal tickets).
And we know he is ruthlessly indifferent to commitments he has made.
Why wouldn't there be more to leak?
Could it be that someone is just waiting for the right time?
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I thought Louise Haigh’s recent Guardian article on withdrawing from UK Labour’s deputy leadership election was really about positioning her in the (hopefully forthcoming) leadership election.
I must read it then…
Also note the formation of a new group within Labour – ‘Mainstream Labour’ – https://www.mainstreamlabour.org/about#Signatories – one of whose founders (Neal Lawson) is openly calling for a leadership/direction change.
In an elective oligarchy, it is possible for sure.
The Deputy leadership election will give an indication of how likely Starmer and the current direction of travel is likely to survive. I think the disquiet within the party is such that Lucy Powell will win convincingly. Certainly I believe that if Andy Burnham had been in a position to stand he would have won by a landslide. Starmer will surely be forced to take notice of a convincing Powell win. If he fails to he risks a leadership challenge and a split in the party.
I personally don’t believe that Starmer leads the sort of life that would produce “kompromat” material.
His sins are the seedy sort politicians get away with again and again.
For example, deceit, lying, betrayal, callousness, misogyny, cynicism, bullying, hypocrisy, bungs, freebies, arrogance, and of course, war crimes including complicity in genocide (all while being a lovely father, husband and friend).
Any Labour MP hoping to lose Starmer as PM in that way, is being a moral coward. There is only one way to get rid of a dishonest lying bully like Starmer, and that is to face up to him and oppose him to his face.
He controls the party machine, membership and conference. He can pick off individual MPs with the PLP whip. But if 80 MPs say “NO!” then he is out.
I believe that even in LINO today, there ARE now 80 MPs who want him gone. It CAN be done, NOW, if necessary.
The only problem is that any replacement PM likely to change course from the current blind lunacy, cannot currently get 80 nominations to replace him – unless a lot of Labour MPs wake up and smell the rotten tomatoes, and hear the sound of the approaching tumbrils and jackboots of Reform.
Without a substantial change of direction, there is little point in changing the PM. But if Starmer, and McTeam, and Reeves, and most of Downing St and the Cabinet Office go, along with their austerity neoliberal madness, and their genocidal war crimes, then, slowly, we might just make it.
For Labour MPs, this is the moment you were elected for. We Labour members past and present, did our best, but we were beaten, completely. Now it’s up to the MPs, and it’s now or never. Do they want to make history or be a mere footnote in the history of the rise of British fascism 2025?
I hear otherwise, but will say no more…
The Westminster bubble knows a lot that has not leaked, I gather
Mandelson has gone. Starmer’s reputation and judgement is in shreds. Why was Mandelson ever there? What did they think his special talent or network skills rested on? Mandelson’s judgement? Starmer’s judgement?
I rest my case.
How long before they drag him back again? Brown did, after all.
I’m reminded of a Narnia quote about the (long dead) White Witch, I think it’s in Prince Caspian, where a hag says, “You can always get them back…”.
Mandelson is indeed the Comeback Kid – but as Trump is discovering, spinning good PR out of sexual abuse of minors is very difficult.
Mind you, the “excuse” Starmer gives about “new information” being the reason for his sacking, is total bu*****t, and totally, so, so, Starmerite in all its obvious bu*****ttery. Does he think ANYONE believes it?
I think, in Churchillian language, this may not be the end for Starmer, nor even the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning. And maybe things could move faster… Starmer and Mandelson were tied together by a long rope, and Mandelson has fallen.
I’ll forgive the Churchill rip off on this occasion: it is quite appropriate.
When Mandleson was appointed, I wondered what he had on the LINO leadership, given his past cock ups.
Personally, I hope the next one to get the chop is Rachel, the faulty Nexus-2 model. Even for a Replicant, she’s dire.