The king is dead, long live the ???

What a day for Keir Starmer. His drifting ship of government if it is being steered at all is destined for the rocks. Labour MPs must be wondering what great trick he has up his sleeve to save them from doom, and I am sure that many will be telling themselves that they do still have four more years to turn things round. I think that it would be fair to compare Starmer’s fate to that of John Major’s, whose ‘Black Wednesday’ crashing out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism sealed his fate, even though he plodded on for a full term. Starmer’s qualifications for leadership have been tested and despite his attempts at global statespersonship he has clearly miscalculated the strength of his base, perhaps led astray by the size of his parliamentary majority as if that was evidence of his popularity. What has become very clear is that the man is not cut out for politics (not least because he doesn’t seem to stand for anything or have any sustainable convictions). Should he resign? Probably. Who then do we end up with, Wes Streeting or Angela Rayner, both of whom are scarred by their prominence in Starmer’s government? With so many Labour MPs to chose from, why do no alternative great hopes emerge? According to Alan Johnson on the radio yesterday, the present intake of Labour MPs can be considered the brightest ever (maybe Al’s after a gong). Perhaps new potential leaders will now emerge as Labour MPs discover they have been liberated from the discipline fetish that overtook the party in recent years (with its fixed selections, parachutists and all-round control freakery). Good luck to them. July1st 2025 will be remembered as Starmer’s ‘Black Tuesday.’