[Tubby Isaacs]

So will Eluned Morgan.

I think Starmer's gone then. Well done, chaps. I'm sure the everybody will love the next leader, and nobody will care that borrowing costs have shot up as some goon runs for office on sticking it to the markets.

[The Weeping Angel]

Meanwhile Stephen Bush is on hand with thoughts.



Of course there's no real alternative agenda from Stephen or any of the other Bluesky people beyond listen to my prefererences and beliefs as everyone else shares them.

[davidjay]

A government run by the people and philosophies that brought the biggest election win of all time, or the heaviest defeat in decades? Tough choice.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sarwar says he's calling for Starmer to quit because 'failures' in No 10 means SNP failures 'continue here in Scotland'
Anas Sarwar says his first loyalty is to Scotland.

Yeah, I'm sure the SNP are quaking in their boots at facing (who exactly?).

[Tubby Isaacs]

I am not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s NHS, our schools, our communities, our towns, cities, villages and islands to a third decade of an SNP government.
That’s why the distraction needs to end. And the leadership in Downing Street has to change.

There've been quite a few Labour leaders in that time. But the one we get rid of is the one who's actually in Government doing stuff that you mostly agree with?

[Abernathy]

Can’t quite work out what Anas Sarwar thinks he is trying to do. Has he been got at by someone ?

He is talking absolute bollocks at his presser.

[davidjay]

Can’t quite work out what Anas Sarwar thinks he is trying to do. Has he been got at by someone ?

He is talking absolute bollocks at his presser.

Stay in power because he'll lose the next election.

[Oboogie]

This is a shit-show, Farage will be PM before Christmas - and it won't be Starmer's fault.

[mattomac]

He's better out of it at this point.

And they will still get fucked at the ballot box in May. As with a General election its going have to happen in 18 months , only Sunak didn't go to the country.

[mattomac]

Meanwhile Stephen Bush is on hand with thoughts.



Of course there's no real alternative agenda from Stephen or any of the other Bluesky people beyond listen to my prefererences and beliefs as everyone else shares them.

Guy can frankly shaft himself with a rusty spanner. He thinks government is incredibly easy and he has all the solutions odd how hes never tested the theory.

[Abernathy]

Starmer is going to address the weekly meeting of the PLP in a few hours - the people who ultimately would have the final say on whether his leadership continues. The word is that he is going to tell them he is not going away. It will be interesting to see how he deals with Sarwar’s self-interested intervention.

Several cabinet ministers have made statements in direct contrast to Sarwar’s, including Reeves, Lammy, and Steve Reed, Pat McFadden, Peter Kyle, Douglas Alexander, and even Wes Streeting in support of the Prime Minister. The cabinet closing ranks.

Bigger picture time - Jeremy Corbyn fought off a much bigger and arguably better attempted move against his leadership and carried on with his leadership (though was of course a conspicuous electoral failure). Surely Starmer can do the same (not the failure bit, obvs)?

Getting a bit sick of all this bollocks now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sarwar might reasonably ask himself why he's constantly outplayed by a political party whose main policy is more reckless than Farage. I know the SNP are very clever at what they do- taking credit for good stuff, blaming "Westminster" for the bad- but he's been there long enough to have made some impression on them by now.

I've more sympathy with Eluned Morgan because there are long term issues with Welsh funding. The Labour Government can't fix that in two budgets though,

[Tubby Isaacs]

Guy can frankly shaft himself with a rusty spanner. He thinks government is incredibly easy and he has all the solutions odd how hes never tested the theory.

Stephen Bush is a massively pompous poor man's Sam Freedman. Freedman tends to concentrate on stuff he's seen close up, or from which he can reasonably draw analogy (so he's seen education reform, as it was called, close up, so he reasonably draws lessons on how you might reform other areas). Bush doesn't seem to have done anything.

"Warmed over Millibandism" is a ridiculous phrase. Milliband in Government is doing stuff way beyond what he contemplated as leader. Reeves is much more expansive in terms of spending and borrowing. Workers rights weren't a Milliband era priority. Nor was planning, which has the potential for the OBR to significantly upgrade growth forecasts.

Of course, lots of critics want more of the stuff Bush hates. Funny old game. And it's easy for this "radical centre" to get above itself. They were almost all telling us the WFA had to go. It did, and was enormously unpopular.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Starmer is going to address the weekly meeting of the PLP in a few hours - the people who ultimately would have the final say on whether his leadership continues. The word is that he is going to tell them he is not going away. It will be interesting to see how he deals with Sarwar’s self-interested intervention.

Several cabinet ministers have made statements in direct contrast to Sarwar’s, including Reeves, Lammy, and Steve Reed, Pat McFadden, Peter Kyle, Douglas Alexander, and even Wes Streeting in support of the Prime Minister. The cabinet closing ranks.

Bigger picture time - Jeremy Corbyn fought off a much bigger and arguably better attempted move against his leadership and carried on with his leadership (though was of course a conspicuous electoral failure). Surely Starmer can do the same (not the failure bit, obvs)?

Getting a bit sick of all this bollocks now.

I think if no Cabinet resignations, then Starmer is fine, on reflection. This is why nobody pays me for my political takes.

Jez's case was different because he always had the members, and knew that. Starmer may not have.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is a shit-show, Farage will be PM before Christmas - and it won't be Starmer's fault.

That's certainly what lots of people want. There are lots on the left who thinks someone like them comes in, implements Corbynism, and there's no blowback to it in terms of markets or people calling for a general election. They'd actually have a point that this was an internal coup, with no electoral mandate. If Liz Truss had hung about and moved from Bozo's vision of lots of public spending to massively cut everything, I'd have called for an election.

As I've mentioned before ,George Monbiot, quite ridiculously, thinks Starmer's at fault for not whipping Labour MPs out of the blue to implement PR, something that was explicitly ruled out before the election, and to say quite openly it's happening because Nigel Farage might win the next election. Mad.

[mattomac]

Starmer is going to address the weekly meeting of the PLP in a few hours - the people who ultimately would have the final say on whether his leadership continues. The word is that he is going to tell them he is not going away. It will be interesting to see how he deals with Sarwar’s self-interested intervention.

Several cabinet ministers have made statements in direct contrast to Sarwar’s, including Reeves, Lammy, and Steve Reed, Pat McFadden, Peter Kyle, Douglas Alexander, and even Wes Streeting in support of the Prime Minister. The cabinet closing ranks.

Bigger picture time - Jeremy Corbyn fought off a much bigger and arguably better attempted move against his leadership and carried on with his leadership (though was of course a conspicuous electoral failure). Surely Starmer can do the same (not the failure bit, obvs)?

Getting a bit sick of all this bollocks now.

I think if no Cabinet resignations, then Starmer is fine, on reflection. This is why nobody pays me for my political takes.

Jez's case was different because he always had the members, and knew that. Starmer may not have.

Looks like most of them have backed him.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sarwar looks pretty ridiculous there with the way he talks about Scottish services. They're not as good as they should be given the money that they have available, especially compared with Wales. But that's not the same thing as talking like they're in some sort of unique state of collapse. As Geoff Boycott might have said, John Swinney's grandmother could play that with a stick of rhubarb.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Looks like Eluned Morgan didn't call for Starmer to resign.

[Crabcakes]

I think Sarwar has done him a favour - it’s brought it to a head but also made it look fucking ludicrous, and likely earned Starmer some sympathy for having to put up with such nonsense.