Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Badenoch is now claiming that Starmer misled the House.

The Greens and the Lib Dems are saying Starmer should resign if he has misled the House.

This looks very bad. Cooper could be in trouble too.

Aren't they just allowed to say that they thought a corrupt insider was the perfect fit to work with the Trump administration? That's clearly what was behind all of this.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 5:19 pm This looks very bad. Cooper could be in trouble too.

I reckon he'll get forced out over this.

The only thing that might save him is if the Permanent Secretary (Ollie Robins) overruled and didn't tell a Minister.

But I think the combination of this and the local elections will be too much for him. Cooper seems to have known after the event, hence some strange wording in her statement dealing with the fallout. She may have to go too.

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 5:24 pm Aren't they just allowed to say that they thought a corrupt insider was the perfect fit to work with the Trump administration? That's clearly what was behind all of this.

Not really, having said that he passed vetting.

We shall see but I reckon KS's days are numbered now, which is a pity.

Believe me, I am fucking boiling with rage. I so want this not to be the case.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 5:35 pm

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 5:24 pm Aren't they just allowed to say that they thought a corrupt insider was the perfect fit to work with the Trump administration? That's clearly what was behind all of this.

Not really, having said that he passed vetting.

It wasn't an entirely serious comment.

I think he'll have to go. Which is bad. But if Cooper has to go, too, it's an absolute disaster.

Fair enough, I should have understood your tone.

It's possible that Starmer didn't know, and that Robbins and Cooper did. But I don't think Starmer can stay while she resigns.

One thing that suggests to me Starmer may not have known is that Robbins would have had to go through Chris Wormald. But Starmer sacked Wormald, which would be a brave call if Wormald could force Starmer out.

Robbins has been summoned to the Select Committee. I wonder if Starmer and Cooper can even last that long.

No 10 says Starmer didn't know he'd failed vetting till this week, and that he sought to find out why so he could update the Commons.

It sounds like quite the thing for Olly Robbins to overule of his own bat and not tell the Prime Minister or (one presumes) the Cabinet Secretary. Most likely explanation is that someone dropped a hint that they wanted Mandelson passed.

If I was Starmer I'd be thinking fuck this for a game of soldiers. It gets more like A Very British Coup all the time.

Leadership's forged in crisis and this is flimsy small beer compared to the geopolitical fuck ups Starmer has on his in-tray.
And why is Yvette Cooper the FS? An experienced and often effective operator but nothing in her background suggests she's had much interest in foreign affairs.

Yeah compared with joining Trump bombing Tehran, as a Badenoch and Farage wanted, would have been in a different league.

But misleading Parliament on something everyone understands is fatal.

He just wanted (past tense used guardedly) to get the house in order. A good man brought down by the very worst of men.

It's not that he actively sought them out, of course he didn't and has been dealt an impossible hand in a world where, quite suddenly, rules and decency are of no prized value, even if they exist at all. This is the new normal. It is just what happens; Icarus, dogs, fleas.