By any metric, losing his chief of staff just three months after taking power is a disaster for Keir Starmer
“TODAY is about optimism,” simpered lefty pub bore James O’Brien after the election.
“How much of it built upon a sense already growing that they know what they are doing, that the grown-ups are back in charge?”
The Guardian proclaimed: “The grown-ups are back in Westminster.
“The Tory psychodramas inside No10 have been replaced by a serious Labour government focused on delivery. It’s going to take time for all of us to make the adjustment.”
Channel 4’s rubbish soothsayer Krishnan Guru-Murthy fizzed: “We now have a government with . . . widespread internal agreement and no likelihood of massive instability any time soon.”
Fast forward fewer than 100 days and 10 Downing Street resembles a bin fire.
Internal disagreements exploded yesterday afternoon after months of backbiting and briefing.
The “grown-ups” look a lot like the old lot.
Better late than never, Sir Keir Starmer has been handed a fire extinguisher by his election-winning guru Morgan McSweeney who has finally ousted the flailing Sue Gray as No10 Chief of Staff and taken her job for good measure.
After a turf war that dated back to her controversial appointment in late 2022, Sir Keir Starmer has circled the wagons and McSweeney and his acolytes have firmly taken back control of the operation.
Famed for her torpedoing of Boris, who this week made clear appointing her to investigate lockdown-breaking allegations in No10 was a key moment in his demise, Gray was never far from the headlines.
But there were warnings at the time a PM would need a proper political hitman in that crucial job rather than a career civil servant with a distinctly mixed performance review.
Yet, despite decrying gesture politics, it was a headline too tempting at the time for Mr Rules to bring in the Partygate witchfinder to run his new ethical utopia or a “government of service” as he put it (How’s that working out by the way?)
And on the way out the door, those who have worked with her since have been quick to bury her.
To soothe egos around Starmer, it was briefed that technocratic Gray would be working on preparations for government and the first 100 days, rather than running the General Election campaign.
However, I’m told no one has ever seen the fruits of that labour and if it did ever exist, I’m fairly sure “resigning” was not pencilled in for day 93 of Sue’s big 100 days grid.
But the blame game can only really land at one man’s feet.
By any metric, and despite what his cheerleaders will spin about him being a tough and ruthless leader willing to change course, losing your chief of staff just three months after taking power is a disaster.
Blame game
On the eve of a Budget, and as the world burns, upheaval in Downing Street, while looking parochial, is not a sign of a healthy administration.
You don’t need me to tell you this government has been listless, scattergun and living hand-to-mouth since taking over. Grip is needed fast.
PR debacle after policy bungle has hit a regime that should be dominating the narrative given its whopping majority.
No10 insiders argue it was Gray who held the rod over the crucial government grid — how stories and announcements are spun and when — with political aides tearing their hair out at a total lack of direction.
Gray’s mantra that ministers should be given more power to do what they think best may be noble, but it does not take into account that a) the Cabinet has a lot of duffers in it and b) you end up looking like a confused mess.
Banning anything fun
Just take Louise Haigh’s decision to line the pockets of striking train drivers the same week the Treasury was pinching pensioners’ pockets with the Winter Fuel cut.
Or what about telling voters they need joy back, then banning anything fun?
But nowhere is this lack of coherence more obvious than in this Government’s utterly baffling foreign policy.
Telling voters net migration needs to come down and Brexit will not be reversed, then flirting with Europe over allowing free movement for the youth.
Telling Brits in the Falklands and Gibraltar they are safe, then handing the Chagos Islands to a China-loving regime without so much as a debate in Parliament or even asking the islanders what they wanted.
Telling allies like Israel we will stand united in the face of terror, then banning weapons exports to please your dwindling Muslim voter base and placate lefty lawyers you’ve hired to your cabinet.
Pre-election promises
And what has happened to that pre-election promise to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP?
When Israel was struck by Iran last week, the Government said Britain “played our part” in her defence.
It turns out all we could do was send up a refuelling plane as hundreds of ballistic missiles hammered our “friends”.
While domestic drama may be a headache for the PM, allowing that mess to seep into Britain’s place in the world is not just humiliating, but deadly.
SACKED Sue Gray’s blushes were spared with a made-up job of the PM’s Envoy for the Regions and Nations.
But unionists will not like that, just as nationalists begin banging the drum for an Irish unification vote.
Gray’s republican connections were said to be a key reason she once missed out on the job of running Northern Ireland’s civil service and her MP son Liam Conlon’s regular appearances at Sinn Fein events have raised eyebrows.
And why did Sinn Fein minister Conor Murphy describe Gray as their “friend at court”?
SIR Keir Starmer’s big reset with Brussels is going badly.
Last week’s meeting of the 27 EU ambassadors concluded that just because Labour say nice things, the fundamentals of Brexit remain.
The PM was told there would be no “cherry picking” when he visited.
Defence pact talks have hit an early wall with a flat rejection of UK defence companies having access to the single market.
There was short shrift too at the UK’s demand for mutual recognition of qualifications for lawyers and bankers.
Starmer’s plea to exempt touring musicians from tight visa rules was also greeted with the usual “Non!”.
A slim offering over agricultural border checks is on the table, but the UK food industry is raising the alarm about shackling them to ever more draconian EU packaging rules.
And Starmer is not the first PM to learn the hard way that by-passing Brussels to talk directly to Berlin and Paris is a red rag to the Eurocrat bull.
They say signing up to an EU-wide free movement scheme for the youth is the key to unlocking other talks.
But the Home Office is saying no way over net migration fears.
Merde!