#keir-starmer

#keir-starmer

After the fortnight the prime minister has had, a spot of rarefied pageantry is just the ticket. The government weathered a three-hour monsoon of questions in the Commons on Tuesday, which amounted to MP after MP asking why on earth Lord Mandelson was appointed as our man in Washington in the first place, and then why it took so long for Sir Keir Starmer to realise his position was untenable.

Just what has Stephen Doughty done to upset Keir Starmer? Are there no limits to the prime minister's contempt and hatred? Not that Steve is a total nobody. He's not a run-of-the-mill backbencher. But he has risen as high as he is likely to go as a junior minister in the Foreign Office. Probably higher than Steve ever expected. Certainly higher than his mates expected. Put simply, Steve is a dependable plodder.

Starmer rolls out red carpet for genocide, reads the front-page headline of The National, a Scottish daily, as anger mounts over the British prime minister's meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president. Herzog is understood to have arrived in the UK on Tuesday. He will meet the premier, Keir Starmer, on Wednesday and is reportedly planning to speak at the Chatham House think tank later in the day. He is expected to leave on Friday.

I saw how challenging reshuffles can be for PM and party when I was chief whip under Rishi Sunak. They tend to make more enemies than friends, even when they are carefully planned and executed. Worse, the friends they make were probably your friends anyway, and the enemies you make are the ones who used to be your friends. In other words, there are only downsides.

If I hear one more of our people saying that deckchairs are being shuffled on the Titanic, a government supporter of Keir Starmer confided to the Daily Mail, I will scream. No need for shrieks. The prime minister's No 10 hokey cokey on Monday wasn't so much shuffling the deckchairs as restructuring the deck crew and announcing that some fresh faces will enable the team to work with new focus towards their ultimate goal of reshuffling.

Sir Keir Starmer has a notable contrast between public remarks and private views regarding a Ukrainian peace process, emphasizing support for Zelensky and condemnation of Putin.

Starmer's approval rating remains low at -41%, down 5 points. His net score fell on attributes like 'strong leader' (-40%) and 'represents what most people think' (-47%).

Starmer emphasized that some figures concerning the public finances, particularly the projected shortfall, are not recognized by him and indicated a need to prioritize living standards.

Morgan McSweeney is the highest paid special adviser, earning between 155,000 and 159,999. Nine others are in the next pay band.