It’s hard not to feel a shred of sympathy for Sir Keir Starmer – or it would be if he weren’t such a self-satisfied, sanctimonious prig himself.
Caught in the seething maelstrom of the Mandelson/Epstein affair, the PM’s authority has evaporated, he has lost the respect of his backbenchers and the buzzards are circling.
Typically, he seeks to redeem himself by blaming others for his own calamitous lack of judgment in appointing the close friend of a convicted paedophile as US ambassador.
The more anger he affects, the more he protests his ignorance of how intimate the two men were and the more phony tears he sheds for Epstein’s victims the more hypocritical he looks.
Every dog on the street knows he’s finished. His MPs are openly looking towards a post-Starmer future and the pretenders to his crown are honing their blades.
Even Polly Toynbee, queen mother of Guardianistas and previously a Starmer fan, wrote yesterday that ‘the end is nigh’. So, the question now is not if but when – and more importantly – what next.
There are two extremely daunting dates looming in Labour’s calendar. The first is February 26, when the people of Gorton and Denton vote in a fascinating by-election.
These staunchly working-class Manchester suburbs have been safe Labour constituencies for more than a century. Not anymore. Assailed from the Right by Reform and the Left by the Greens (who are predicted to clean up the significant Muslim vote), the bookies predict Labour will limp in a distant third.
Keir Starmer’s authority has evaporated amid the seething maelstrom of the Mandelson/Epstein affair
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) talks with the then ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC
Should that happen, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham will doubtless take to the airwaves to claim he would have won the seat had he not been blocked by Downing Street, piling on more pressure.
If he has stomach for the fight, Sir Keir may be allowed to stumble on a little longer, not least because none of the candidates will relish taking over before the second of those key dates – May 7, when Labour is set to be humiliated again in elections in Scotland, England and Wales.
The party has cynically tried to mitigate the damage by cancelling the elections in 29 council areas, of which 16 are held by Labour and eight have no overall control.
This affront to democracy may save the skins of some Labour councillors but in the remaining 34 council elections Labour is set for a drubbing. The pretenders to Sir Keir’s crown will not want their fingerprints on such a debacle but may well see it as their cue to strike.
Meanwhile, the Mandelson/Epstein scandal is still unravelling. A cache of communications between ministers and civil servants is currently being trawled through by the Intelligence and Security Committee. Who knows what further bombshells lurk within?
Some say Sir Keir is a lame duck. That is an understatement. This bird has been gutted, plucked, cooked and laid out for carving. But we must be careful what we wish for.
None of the challengers offer a palatable alternative. Angela Rayner, the favourite, is a class warrior and militant unionist who regards Tories as ‘scum’. The damage she could do in three years is beyond imagining.
One glimmer of hope, however, is the growth in political stature of Kemi Badenoch. After a low-key start, she is fast developing into the strong and confident leader the Tories and the country needs.
If she can work out some arrangement with Reform UK to unite the Right, the malign forces of class-war socialism may yet be routed.