The wheels come off on 7 May. That’s the date set for the local and devolved elections that will sweep Labour away. Sir Keir Starmer’s party is projected to lose as many as 1,700 council seats. Labour faces annihilation in former strongholds across the North of England, London, Wales and Scotland. If Starmer were a man of honour, he’d fall on his sword. Instead, he’s come up with a plan.
The country has already made up its mind about Sir Keir. Voters see him as dull, empty, passive, spineless and slippery. A man who will say anything to get his way, then say the opposite the next day, if that suits him better. He’s told whoppers on everything from Labour’s tax and spend plans to the Chagos Islands, winter fuel payments, social care, farmers, Brexit, grooming gangs, small boats, Waspi women, Peter Mandelson… the list is endless.
His own cabinet isn’t impressed either. He dithers, avoids decisions and when embattled ministers need his backing, he drops them like a stone. Just ask home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who deserves better.
Starmer has forced Rachel Reeves into a string of humiliating U-turns, on winter fuel, welfare cuts and last Budget’s income tax hike, for starters. Each time, she’s been left high and dry, eroding whatever’s left of her authority. When she broke down in tears beside him in the Commons, Starmer barely seemed to notice. Let alone care. That’s nothing compared to what he’s planning for her now.
What we do know is this. The PM will do whatever it takes to save his own skin. And that’s terrible news for Reeves.
He’s been using her as a human shield for months. Reeves is perfect for the role, given that she’s the only member of the cabinet who is even less popular with voters than he is. That’s partly her fault for driving the economy to destruction with her incoherent tax-and-spend policies, but Starmer must share the blame.
The PM has just left her to it. He’s given her no direction, allowed the mistakes to pile up, then hung her out to dry when the backlash came. Imagine working for a boss like that.
Relations between the two have reportedly collapsed. They can barely stand to be in the same room. And she knows what’s coming. At the moment of maximum pressure, Starmer will throw Reeves under the bus. He’ll sacrifice her as part of his desperate last-ditch attempt to head off the Angela Rayner bandwagon.
Reeves had better reach for her crash helmet. Though in truth, she probably already has. She knows how Starmer operates, having witnesseed this hollow man at first hand. Now all she can do is wait for the inevitable. It might even come as a relief.