Keir Starmer - new Labour leader

I see Labour just sneaked home in Batley and Gorgeous George came in third.

Ye feels like a stay of execution for Keir, great to hold on though. And the little I saw of Kim Leadbeater I thought she came across well.

I Don't Know Who Kier Starmer Is.

Former Labour voters in Blackpool have quizzed the party leader Sir Keir Starmer on a wide range of issues.

Several of the voters at the event, who were selected by an independent polling company, said that they had never heard of Mr Starmer before, which he described as "utterly frustrating".



Sir Keir Starmer: Frustrating that some don't know me


Sir Keir Starmer: This was always going to be a tough gig

Labour facing financial ruin: Starmer wants QUARTER of all staff gone after funding plunge

The party's ruling national executive committee will consider plans to cut up to a quarter of all staff at a meeting later. Labour is in financial trouble and is desperately looking at ways to cut costs in order to have enough money to fight a future general election.

The party's coffers were hit after fighting three general elections in six years.

A series of expensive legal battles over decisions taken during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership have also hit the party finances hard.

Last year Labour paid out a six-figure sum to seven former employees and BBC journalist John Ware after a libel claim.

Mr Ware had interviewed the staff for the BBC Panorama programme "Is Labour Antisemitic?" which first aired in 2019.

At the time, Mr Corbyn's office accused the BBC of making up quotes and the former staff of "making a false and malicious statement".

Labour had been hoping it might see a boost to the membership following Sir Keir Starmer's election as leader last spring, but no such bounce has occurred.

A Labour insider said: "This is not an easy decision and we recognise it will be a very difficult time for staff and we will fully engage and consult with them and the trade unions throughout.

"We are reshaping our party’s operation with a view towards being fighting fit for upcoming campaigns and the next general election."

The next election does not have to be until May 2024, but Boris Johnson is said to be already considering holding a vote before then.

The Government is thought to be planning to hold a general election in two years, going to the polls in 2023.

Labour's most recent annual report showed the party employed 367 staff as of December 31 2019, just after the year's general election.

The party is understood to be looking to cut around 90 staff.

General secretary David Evans is hoping the majority of the cuts can be met via a voluntary severance scheme.

The plans have already angered trade unions.

Labour's biggest donor, Unite, lashed out at the proposals last night.

The union said: "While working-class communities are continuing to bear the brunt of the sickness and employment worries made much worse by Conservative mishandling of the pandemic, Labour is abandoning the field of battle against this government to turn its fire on its members instead."

Sir Keir has had a strained relationship with the unions since taking over from Mr Corbyn.

The Labour leader has been accused of not being tough enough in criticising the Government during the pandemic.

Sir Keir also left many union leaders angry when he suspended his predecessor from Labour last autumn.

While Mr Corbyn's membership to the party has been reinstated, he has still not had the whip returned that would allow him to sit with Labour MPs in Parliament.

Sir Keir has a majority of allies on the National Executive Committee and the plans for the redundancies are expected to be backed by the ruling body.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1464923/labour-party-news-keir-starmer-nec-update-labour-finance-funding-nec-redundancies

Civil war still going on in the Labour party yet TROY doesn't know why I asked the question 'who actually is in charge of the Labour Party?'.

Starmer warned Labour leadership rule changes risk 'civil war'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58637086

Sluffy wrote:Civil war still going on in the Labour party yet TROY doesn't know why I asked the question 'who actually is in charge of the Labour Party?'.

Starmer warned Labour leadership rule changes risk 'civil war'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58637086

The in fighting has been going on for a long time. Even I had to leave in the end, despite friends urging me to stay and fight. I'd pretty much had enough, and I can honestly say, I'm happier on the outside looking in.
Starmer isn't up to the job, but that's just my opinion. Unless things change, they won't even be the main opposition party.

Also don’t think Starmer is up to it Bonce, supposedly this change is being driven by the right of the party though who will look to replace Starmer with someone on the right of the party at the earliest opportunity.

If it goes through I’ll be cancelling my membership - as many others will I’m sure.

To be fair I don't think Starmer has even had a chance to show himself yet.

He clearly wanted to distance himself from Corbyn and the Corbynista's, featuring the Momentum lot and had to wait his chance when the Anti-Semitism report came out then almost immediately ran into a brick wall with the botched reshuffle when he couldn't get shut of Rayner.

He's hamstrung with the union political activists and the likes of Unite clearly not behind him at all.

It's desperate times when he's apparently begging to go back to the old 'block vote system' that the centralists in the party tried for so long to get rid of!!!

He clearly see's it as the only way of getting back some control of the party so he can at last start to lead it.

It all has echos of Kinnock and Militant to my mind back in the day - and Kinnock remember saved the party but still lost the General Election.

I also don't think Labour has any popularist potential leaders (in the eyes of the electorate) other than Burnham to replace him with - remember the clock has already started for the next election in less than two years time - in order for a 'new face' to gain traction and trust with the country's voters.

Saying that at least Burnham has got northern roots (as opposed to Starmer's London central) but Burnham won't win the next election - even Sturgeon ran rings around him the other month over Covid!

Rayner seems to be the best of a very anonymous and mediocre group and I can see some sort of a fudge leader emerging like even Ed Miliband as an holding /interim leader whilst the civil warring is ongoing.

The root of the problem to me is simple - the activists such as both yourselves seem to be - want a government with policies that is simply non electable - it no longer reflects what the public these days want.

I don't know why you can't seem to see that?

Look at how people have acted during the greatest pandemic in our lifetimes and it is clearly all about themselves first and fuck everybody else type mentality - these are the people you need to convince to vote for you - if you thought Corbyn and his manifesto was what you wanted to see, then surely the stuffing that Labour got on the day - and the disintegration of the 'red wall' - must show you the masses didn't see it at all relevant to them!

Maybe if Starmer can somehow turn the party around in the same way that Kinnock did - and that started at one of their conferences - then maybe he will finally be able to show himself as a leader at long last but I don't think he even has the backing of the likes of Rayner and his top table appointments, let alone win the unions and conference over.

All seems a bloody mess to me - with no end in sight of it getting any better.

I'm no fan of Starmer or Labour for that matter. After all they supported Brexit and thereby forfeited the right to be critical of the Tories now that it's crumbling about our ears.
But Starmer improved slightly yesterday. Instead of droning on about the end of the UC uplift - not a vote winner given that the polls suggest it's considered good for the 40% of recipients who are in work and just need a hand, but is generally perceived as "welfare" for the rest which is unpopular with the masses ATM - he contextualised it in one speech which also mentioned "the rise in NI contributions for low and middle income workers, increases in Council Tax, the freezing of the personal income tax allowance from April 2022, the increasing cost of household energy bills and rising prices resulting from the supply chain disruption caused by worker and supply shortages"

Finally he has strung a sentence together that shows that UC is only a part of a wider fiscal retrenchment under the Tories and at the same time pointed out the "the new austerity" (as it will inevitably be called) will be happening even before next year's tax rises take effect.

It's sad that the polls suggest the British public are not motivated by cuts to incomes of the less fortunate, but by pointing out the harm that this government will cause middle income families as well may be the right path for him to take if he is to have a chance in 2024.

Andy Burnham says he's not bidding for the Labour leadership

Sounds to me that he doesn't believe he could beat Rayner in a future fight for the job (not for now at least!

Who thought this was a good look for Starmer???

Haulier shortage: Keir Starmer fails mock lorry driving test

The Labour leader was warned to move to the left while visiting a HGV driver training centre and taking a lesson.

But after reversing the vehicle, and striking a bollard on the course in Oldham, he was warned he would have failed a test.

Christ, what were they thinking 

They don't usually think at all.

Haha poor Ed

Sluffy wrote:

Who thought this was a good look for Starmer??

"Good look"?

Obviously not mastered HGV driving in lesson 1 but he's way off mastering the technique of looking a total knob - which is clearly a vote winner...




This little melange somehow managed to miss out a few PR stunts though e.g.

Sir Keir Starmer investigated over alleged lockdown breach

Durham Police are investigating whether Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer broke lockdown rules on a visit last year during which he drank beer in an MP's office.

The force initially concluded that no offence had occurred on 30 April, but said it had since received "significant new information".

It added that it had delayed announcing the investigation until after Thursday's local elections.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61352174

New information supplied by high ranking Tories no doubt  

Its just tit for tat and to deflect attention from the Tories many failings and fines throughout lockdown, pathetic point scoring really and we should expect much better from our politicians.

Perhaps a relevant quote here is about the Libdems:

The gurniad writes:

The Lib Dems are particularly pleased that one candidate they have beaten in Blackmoor Vale, Somerset, is Hayward Burt - who runs the unit at CCHQ in charge of attacking the Liberal Democrats. 

Supposing Durham police decide to fine Starmer.

If he does the honourable thing and resigns, where would that leave the Tories and would it make any difference?