Ian Austin, Peer and former Labour Minister
IS this the week it began to unravel for Keir Starmer’s government?
That’s the question everyone is asking in Westminster. You can see why.
Though he inherited an economy in the doldrums from the Tories and growth looked like it had finally picked up this week, the next day brought figures showing inflation and borrowing had gone up again too.
Immigration numbers are finally coming down, but only from the shocking highs of the Tory years when they let a million people come to the UK in a year, at the same time as failing to build enough homes for people living here already.
And people are still crossing the Channel in record numbers. Schools and hospitals desperately need investment but there’s not enough cash to go round.
Getting restless
Defence spending has to increase to recruit more soldiers, sailors and airmen and pay for expensive new equipment.
There’s no choice about that when we have a war in Ukraine and Donald Trump in the White House saying America won’t pick up the bill for Europe’s defence any longer.
Keir has excelled on the international stage, rallying Europe more forcefully behind Ukraine, charming Trump into cutting tariffs and striking three new trade deals.
But that hasn’t stopped his own troops getting restless.
There’s nothing Labour lefties like more than moaning about their leaders.
And they’ve been in their element this week, whingeing about everything from benefit cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel payments and much more besides.
Some of them are panicking after the hammering they received in the local elections when Reform won seats and councils Labour had held for decades.
Deputy Leader Angela Rayner ruffled feathers by sending round suggestions on tax increases instead of benefit cuts.
She obviously wants the top job after Keir. That’s fair enough: Every other senior politician would like to be PM too. I wouldn’t bet against it either.
It’s not easy to get to the top in British politics when you’ve had a great start in life at a posh school and top university.
To get there from working as a care assistant in Stockport takes hard work and ruthless determination, so underestimate her at your peril.
Ridiculously, some Labour MPs think the answer is to move to the left.
They must be mad if they believe working class people vote for right-wing parties because they think Labour isn’t left-wing enough.
And look at their hysterical reaction when the PM dared to discuss immigration, one of the voters’ top concerns.
He was right to say it doesn’t make sense to import hundreds of thousands of people when we’re paying so many people already in the country not to work.
Of course people must speak English if they want to integrate, get a job and play a full role in society.
But to listen to the sanctimonious whingers you’d have thought Keir had joined the Ku Klux Klan, put on a white pointy hat and set a cross on fire in Parliament Square.
Some of them are so terrified about so-called Gaza independents, they spend their whole time talking about Gaza.
They pin all the blame on Israel, one of our closest allies and the Middle East’s only democracy, instead of the Hamas terrorists, who deliberately started the war by murdering, raping and kidnapping civilians.
If you think things are difficult now, wait until they try to tackle the benefits bill.
This looks set to be a huge battle with over a hundred Labour MPs threatening to vote against the Government. Again, they must be mad.
We’re paying millions of people not to work and youth unemployment is a national scandal that will blight their lives for ever.
Listen to the voters
When I joined the Labour Party 40 years ago, we fought against unemployment and marched for jobs.
How can they be angry about measures to give young people the opportunity to get off benefits and into work?
There’s nothing that angers traditional hard-working Labour voters than getting up to go to work while a family down the street stays in bed on benefits.
There’s some good news for Keir. However bad things are for Labour, the Tories show no sign of recovery at all.
So this is the key for Keir: Ignore the whingers and listen to the voters. Deal with their priorities — kick-start the economy and cut the cost of living.
Tackle crime. Strengthen our borders and our armed forces.
Get the construction industry moving and build the homes the country needs.
That’s how you’ll turn things round.
