ANDREW PIERCE: Now even one in every of Starmer’s whips needs to oust the PM
The Government’s whips are any prime minister’s Praetorian Guard, with a solemn duty to enforce discipline in the parliamentary party.
But with the air thick with talk of plots against Sir Keir Starmer, I hear he can no longer rely on the absolute loyalty of all of them.
One of the whips is widely understood within Westminster to be considering resigning to stand as a ‘stalking horse’ candidate against Starmer.
In order to force a leadership contest, this MP would first have to secure the support of 20 per cent of the party’s MPs, which – given there are 405 Labour members – would mean collecting 81 signatures. The whip concerned knows there is no prospect of them winning – but they could inflict serious and eventually fatal damage on the PM.
When Sir Anthony Meyer, an eccentric Tory backbencher, challenged Mrs Thatcher in 1989 she won, but 61 MPs failed to support her. She was gone 11 months later. Will history repeat itself with an obscure whip playing the Meyer role?
‘With the air thick with talk of plots against Sir Keir Starmer, I hear he can no longer rely on the absolute loyalty of all of his whips’
Incidentally, it’s fair to assume that Imogen Walker, the MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley, is among the most loyal of whips. She is married to Starmer’s embattled chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who denied reports he was behind recent briefings that claimed Health Secretary Wes Streeting was plotting against the PM.
A real wag in the Lords
Lord Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, told peers his guide dog Barley wanted to thank them for closing puppy-smuggling loopholes in the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill. ‘There is a four-legged member of the House here who would like to thank everyone involved on behalf of his species,’ said Blunkett.
After Justice Secretary David Lammy’s disastrous first appearance standing in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this month, where he scrambled for a poppy halfway through, he now appears to have been gagged. An analysis of the morning ministerial broadcast round shows Lammy – also the Deputy PM – has not been allowed out since July 22.
- Gabby Logan told Have I Got News For You viewers that Health Secretary Wes Streeting was elevated to the top of the pile of challengers to Keir Starmer by ‘a cack-handed briefing operation’. Is she aware of what happened to the last Match Of The Day presenter who dabbled in politics?
Match Of The Day presenter Gabby Logan
- Actress Frances Barber, long a Leftie luvvie, has belatedly become a Thatcherite. Barber, who studied the Iron Lady as she prepared to play her last year in the Radio 4 play When Maggie Met Larry, admits she used to hate Mrs T, but thanks to the current Government’s political ineptitude, finds herself wishing ‘her back every week’.
- Apologies to Rachel Jupp, who I described last week as editor of the BBC’s Panorama programme. Happy to report she moved elsewhere in the Beeb two years before the contaminated report of Donald Trump’s Capitol Hill speech.
- A satirical news alert was trending on social media after ‘Never here’ Keir Starmer headed to South Africa for the G20 summit and his 45th trip abroad since becoming PM. It ran: ‘Breaking news: Starmer to visit Britain next week.’
A belly dancer! How exotic
Much chatter in the Upper House about who should succeed John McFall, who is retiring as Lord Speaker. On hearing that crossbench peer Deborah Bull could be a candidate, one Tory peer whispered: ‘Oh marvellous! How exotic! We’ve never had one of those before as Lord Speaker!’
One of which? ‘A belly dancer!’
Sadly, the peer’s hearing had failed him. He was disappointed to learn that although Baroness Bull does indeed have a background in dance, it is of the ‘ballet’, not ‘belly’, variety.
She was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet for 20 years.
