No 10’s misjudgement over Mandelson has left Labour MPs increasingly aware of the fallibility of the PM and his team
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The debacle of last summer, when Keir Starmer caved in over welfare reforms after promised concessions failed to convince his mutinous backbenchers, was viewed as a low point for his government. Now, amazingly, it has happened all over again.
If the repetition of history was not already enough, with the ructions over releasing government documents about Peter Mandelson, once again Starmer has a certain Angela Rayner to thank, in part, for digging him out of a political hole.
With welfare reform it was the then-deputy prime minister who bluntly told Downing Street that their offering to Labour MPs was not enough to prevent a likely Commons defeat, prompting No 10 to drop the bulk of the plans.
