Starmer’s faction up to dark sh*t

There are still just a handful of decent people in the Labour Party, though few and far between. Alloa and Grangemouth’s union-backed Brian Leishman is one.

Leishman: calling it out

In the Commons on Monday 23 february, Leishman challenged Starmer for his broken promise (one of so, so many) to clean up politics. He then pointed out that the people who scammed Starmer into the Labour top seat and, with the help of Reform, into Number 10 have been exposed as spies and con artists. These miscreants include Starmer’s disgraced now-former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, his disgraced now-former senior adviser and ambassador Peter Mandelson and his disgraced for-now current minister Josh Simons.

And he rounded off by challenging Starmer’s front bench to admit that all this is “some dark shit”:

Leishman was told off by friend-of-Israel speaker Lindsey Hoyle for his choice of word. He offered the required apology for his language, but did not withdraw the question and looked entirely unrepentant about the sentiment.

Leishman had the party whip suspended in July 2025 for publicly criticising Starmer and refusing to vote to harm poor people, then reinstated in November. Given Starmer’s notoriously brittle ego, it may not be long before Mr L is sitting as an independent again – and all the better for it.

Featured image via the Canary