Starmer loves his time abroad, swanning about looking important at fancy foreign summits. He’s barely set foot on home soil in weeks.
Yesterday, for the second time in a row, Angela Rayner stood in for him at Prime Minister’s questions.
Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride quipped it was great to see Rayner standing in again, adding that “there are many sitting behind her who wish this were a permanent arrangement”.
The PM enjoys the prestige of foreign summits, but he’s less keen on facing angry voters at home.
Increasingly, he can’t face his own party either. He’s now under siege from the very Labour MPs who won their seats during last year’s landslide.
They’re rebelling over Starmer’s plans to cut disability benefits. More than 120 Labour MPs have signed a “fatal” amendment designed to kill off the welfare reforms altogether.
They say the measures will strip help from 800,000 vulnerable people, including those who struggle to wash or dress. That’s not why they joined Labour.
Others are simply furious at being ignored. According to The Times, talk of “regime change” is now chillingly real.
As the crisis builds, Starmer is cowering in his NATO bunker.
Labour heavyweight David Blunkett warned the government could “crash into crisis” if the PM presses on and loses.
But any U-turn will scream weakness and destroy Starmer’s chances of pushing through further reforms.
Especially after the humiliation of the winter fuel payment fiasco.
As I said yesterday, that spells disaster for taxpayers. Reeves is relying on £5billion of welfare cuts to balance the books.
Without them, it’s even more likely she’ll launch a second major tax raid in the autumn Budget. Which may thrill tax-happy Labour MPs, but further alienate those who pay.
What a mess. And it’s less than a year since Starmer secured a 174-seat majority.
Labour has shown it’s better at protesting than governing. The left of the party still reckons it can tax and spend its way out of every problem.
If Starmer can’t control this rabble with his massive majority, nobody can. He may as well keep his head down in the Hague. But even NATO can’t protect him from his own MPs.
