NADINE DORRIES: I used to be there as Boris and Theresa had been pressured out. This is what lies forward for Starmer…
If Kier Starmer hasn’t quit by the time you read this, then he will be hanging on – just – by the remains of his much-chewed fingernails.
He can throw as many close aides under a bus as he likes, but if his own MPs want him out of No 10 then it is only a matter of when, not if.
This is no longer about Peter Mandelson. This is about the right moment for those desperate to defenestrate Starmer since the very beginning to go for it.
I know what I’m talking about because I experienced it twice. First with the removal of Theresa May in May 2019 and then Boris Johnson in July 2022. I was, in that last instance, the last woman left loyally standing by in a lonely dark corridor in No 10 late at night as madness prevailed.
Yesterday, political advisers close to Starmer – desperate not to find themselves out of a job come tomorrow – will have been telling him to hold tight.
Meanwhile, long-standing civil servants whose job it is to keep the ship of Government steady in the gathering political maelstrom, will be fearful of what is to come. They know what the financial cost to the country could be if Starmer quits and triggers a collective nervous breakdown in the bond markets at what is likely to come next.
Starmer may survive his meeting tonight with the Parliamentary Labour Party – they are likely to take their lead from the Cabinet
And although Sir Keir is the worst Prime Minister this country has been forced to endure in living memory – and don’t spit out the coffee when you read this – I hope he somehow survives this catastrophic mess of his creating because the alternatives are too dreadful to contemplate.
Angela Rayner, the vape-wielding former disgraced Secretary of State for Housing is the favourite. Or – and I shudder as I write his name – another close contender will be Ed Miliband, the Net Zero zealot who wants us all to heat our homes with unaffordable heat pumps and scar the countryside with wind turbines and solar panels. He’s a man who can’t even manage a bacon butty with any degree of efficiency.
Those ministers set to lose power and status when Starmer falls from his perch will also be urging him with all their self-interested might to get a grip.
The Cabinet yesterday issued muted support and initially, at least, they will form a Praetorian guard around him – until they don’t. No 10 will resemble a wartime bunker instead of the engine room of Government.
Nothing of any benefit to the country will be achieved as all energy and effort will be focused on saving the PM’s skin.
Across the road in Westminster, Labour MPs will have returned from weekends in their constituencies spent monitoring the resignations and mood music, the polling and musings of political pundits. Speculation will grow ever more fevered.
Suddenly, the realisation will dawn on little known backbenchers that they have something important to do.
They will each be contacted by rival leadership camps, demanding to know whose court they are in and who their closest friends on the green benches are. Their job will be to influence others and persuade them to fall into line. Who knows, their reward might be their own red box! Naked ambition is a demanding mistress, and they will throw caution and logic to the wind as they attend hushed meetings in the tea room and bars or gather to plot in huddles.
Nothing of any benefit to the country will be achieved as all energy and effort will be focused on saving the PM’s skin, writes our columnist. Pictured: communications chief Tim Allan, who quit yesterday
Egos are boosted as everyone wants to speak to them – TV and print journalists, news websites, podcasters – and get their take. MPs slowly begin to lose their minds. At this point it becomes a numbers game and a Prime Minister’s fall will happen as soon as a leadership rival thinks he or she has the support they need. The herd will move.
I knew it was over for Boris even before ministers started resigning when I walked into the office Rishi Sunak kept in No 10 and discovered it was bare. A fellow Cabinet minister was with me.
‘Where’s all Rishi’s stuff? I asked him. ‘He cleared out days ago, he told me. ‘He moved his wife and kids out of the flat in No 11 last week.’
Starmer may survive his meeting tonight with the Parliamentary Labour Party – they are likely to take their lead from the Cabinet. They may bang the desks and cheer but as soon as he leaves, the plotting will continue.
The end when it comes for Starmer will be signalled by a visit from the Chief Whip. He will offer a glass of whisky with one hand, the theoretical revolver in the other and tell him: ‘I’m sorry Prime Minister, I can do no more to save you. The party has gone mad. If you don’t go, they will remove you.’
Labour MPs, by turning on Starmer, will guarantee political oblivion for the party – just as the Conservatives did when they removed Boris Johnson.
Both main parties have demonstrated they are incapable of strong governance and leadership. But from this point on, Labour MPs will be beyond reason. Promises have been made by the leadership contenders, the blood is up and we the voters will once again pay the inevitable price as the country suffers.
