Sir Keir Starmer’s allies have since issued a damning assessment of the Prime Minister, as they admit they think he’s in far too weak a position to sack rival Wes Streeting
Sir Keir Starmer’s own allies have warned that he is “too weak” to sack bitter leadership rival Wes Streeting.
The “zombie PM” is seen as a dead man walking after a string of coup attempts, which have been blamed on the Health Secretary. A chaotic Monday (February 9) saw Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar call for the Prime Minister to resign.
But Sir Keir has refused to budge, forcing Mr Streeting to rein in his ambitions. Now Sir Keir’s allies have since issued a damning assessment of their own PM, with one saying: “I don’t think he can sack Wes. I don’t think he has the strength to sack anyone right now.”
Another added: “Sacking Wes would just uncork even more political chaos of the kind we’re trying to avoid.”
Mr Streeting has denied he has been part of any coup attempts or was behind Mr Sarwar’s demand for the PM to go. But his backers insist he still wants to replace the PM and the stalking horse may be willing to stand against him after February 26’s by-election.
An ally to Mr Streeting said: “Nothing has changed. There was a big performance of unity but Keir is no safer than he was yesterday.
“At this point Keir is a zombie. He is in the Theresa May phase of his leadership.”
During PMQs on Wednesday (February 11), Tory leader Kemi Badenoch challenged Sir Keir on his decision to put his former communications director Matthew Doyle in the House of Lords. Doyle, who took his seat in the Lords last month, was suspended by Labour on Tuesday over his links to convicted sex offender Sean Morton.
He campaigned for the former Labour councillor in Moray in 2017 after Morton had been charged with indecent images of children offences, which he later admitted.
Ms Badenoch accused Sir Keir of “stuffing Government with hypocrites and paedophile apologists”.
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey told the Commons: “To appoint one paedophile supporter cannot be excused as ‘misfortune’. To appoint two shows a catastrophic lack of judgment.”
It comes after a poll found the vast majority of British people think Sir Keir should “resign now”. Produced by Politico with Public First, the poll shows that 52% want him to go, while 19% say that his advisors should resign but that he should stay. Around 15% said that nobody should go, while 14% have no idea what to think.
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