Keir Starmer Calls For Cabinet Unity Amid Leadership Concerns

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Keir Starmer won a landslide election victory just 16 months ago.

By rights, the prime minister should still be enjoying something of a honeymoon period, with a huge Commons majority ensuring a smooth passage for any policy he wishes to enact.

And yet, we are already at the stage of the Starmer premiership when he is having to plead with his most senior colleagues to work with, rather than against, him.

As one MP sarcastically commented: “Very normal less than 18 months after an election.”

The readout of this morning’s weekly cabinet meeting was unusual in that is actually contained some news.

“The prime minister opened cabinet by setting out the importance of the government’s mandate to renew the country,” his spokesman said.

“He said distractions meant our focus shifted from where it mattered most – working every day in the service of the British people

“People were rightly impatient for change and we have to deliver that rather than talking about ourselves. That means working as a team offering opportunity and security and delivering on our mandate.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting’s thoughts at that particular moment would have been interesting, given it was briefing against him by sources close to Starmer that triggered the latest bout of Labour in-fighting.

The PM was also irked, we are told, by last week’s Financial Times scoop that Rachel Reeves will not be putting up income tax in next week’s Budget after all.

That U-turn – after both the chancellor and the prime minister spent weeks laying the groundwork for the manifesto-busting move – simply added to the sense that this is a government veering from one idea to another rather than pursuing a clear strategy.

In a further sign that things are not all well in No.10, the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror this morning splashed with the story that Starmer had told them he would lead Labour into the next general election.

Given he is sitting on a 160-seat majority, the fact that this needs saying at all demonstrates how precarious his position currently is.

Speak to any Labour MP and they will tell you that, assuming he makes it to Christmas, the PM is unlikely to survive long after next May’s elections in Scotland, Wales and England.

All the opinion polls, and the anecdotal evidence from MPs knocking on doors every weekend, indicate that Labour is heading for a brutal reckoning with an electorate who voted for change and have seen little evidence of it thus far.

Starmer can at least rely on the continuing support of attorney general Lord Hermer, his longstanding friend and his closest cabinet ally.

As HuffPost UK revealed, he will deliver a speech on Tuesday evening in which he will say the PM’s working class background means he can deliver for ordinary voters.

He will say: “Injustices can be addressed, wrongs can be made right, through graft, patience and, above all, determination. That’s the story of the man I know, Keir Starmer.

“Populists to the left and right say you don’t need any of that. Just ban this thing, leave this convention. All will be well. But who is left to pick up the pieces, when it all goes south? Working class people. Like the family Keir Starmer grew up in.”

A source close to Hermer said: “He will be ramping up his efforts in the coming months in support of the rule of law as a platform for change, and of the prime minister.”

With most Labour MPs, and a significant chunk of the cabinet, rapidly losing faith in Starmer’s ability to turn things around, the coming months may well be the last he has in Downing Street.