I am preparing my resignation from the Labour Party. Not because I am dissatisfied with the general direction of the government – qualifications to follow – nor the prime minister Keir Starmer. No. I am preparing my resignation for when – and I fear it is when – Starmer is toppled and hounded out of office. I honestly believe that things will get even worse under a new leader.
There is no doubt that Labour has been too slow to turn the country around and the changes so far have been incremental. But the changes are real. Polly Toynbee explained why in the Guardian before she joined the rest of that sordid Trot-run shit show in a relentless campaign against the leader. Unfortunately, guided by a criminally one-sided media, where the BBC fights alongside the Daily Mail – the Daily Fucking Mail – to put forward the most damaging stories against Labour, the success stories are buried.
My view is that the Labour Party under Keir Starmer was elected to serve a five year term. The perceived lack of success does not change that. Starmer has been PM for less than two years and inherited a terrible mess from the Conservatives, some of whose key figures now sit alongside the Fagash Fuhrer in Nigel Farage’s extreme right-wing company Reform Party UK Ltd. He has a mandate. Being hated by much of the electorate, even to the ludicrous extent that he is, cannot be a reason for removing him. Poor local election results are par for the course for all governments. But when and if he does go, who takes over and what happens?
Angela Rayner? Wes Streeting? Andy Burnham who isn’t even an MP? It’s absurd. Much as I love Rayner, she is far from popular among many groups of voters and that was the case before she fucked up her stamp duty on a new house. Streeting I like too, but is he really the man to turn things around? He should be more concerned about his own seat in parliament, which a minuscule swing against Labour would see him out. And Burnham would have to find the safest Labour seat in the land to even get back into parliament. Can you imagine the political and media campaign to stop him?
I resigned from Labour when Jeremy Corbyn defeated – oh, who was it? Oh yes – Andy Burnham to become Labour leader. And before that in 2010, Burnham was battered when standing for Labour when members voted for the wrong Miliband (Ed) when they should have voted for David. I stayed on that time. He’s been there, hasn’t done it, never go back, as they say (although no one listens).
The gutter press, aided and abetted by the rest of the media, including Sky News and the BBC, will be all over the new leader like a rash and the one stick they will beat her/him with is the one that s/he has no mandate and there will have to be a general election. The media and the opposition won’t let that one go until it happens. And, as we know, they will work flat out to undermine the new PM in the same way they have with Starmer.
For all his flaws, Keir Starmer is a decent man. It’s been a while since we had one of them. He’s not a career politician either. It’s been a while since we had one of them. Steady as she goes is clearly not enough for many people and as a Labour supporter myself, it’s not good enough for me. But it’s still better than any other party, especially the Conservatives and Reform Party UK Ltd, under whom we would be fighting Trump’s unhinged war on Iran if they had had their way.
I want the PM to see out his term in office and allow voters to decide whether over five years he has done a good job or whether to see if Nigel Farage’s fascism deserves a chance to truly fuck this country over one and for all. And have no doubt: if you thought the Conservatives were bad, Farage will be saying, “Hold my coat.”
Starmer’s defeat will be Labour’s defeat, just mark my words. They would not come back from this, probably ever.
