There is a look of despair in Starmer’s eyes – and a feeling in the room that the endgame has begun
I
t’s beginning to feel terminal. Not that there hasn’t been talk of Labour MPs wanting to remove Keir Starmer before. Just that this time there’s the sense of a tipping point being reached. No more second chances. No praying for a miracle in the May elections that will never come. A quantum shift of collective despair.
You can’t escape the irony. Starmer has always prided himself on being Mr Rules. It’s how he got elected. He might be a bit dull and lack charisma, but you can count on him to be reliable. To play by the rules. And now he has been undone by having given the prime Washington job to a man who was the epitome of Mr No Rules. And he had thought he had been so clever by acting out of character to make Peter Mandelson the US ambassador. Many in his cabinet had congratulated him. As had many Tories. A sleazy diplomat for a sleazy president. A match made in heaven.
But what was done cannot be undone. This is one mistake that can’t be put right. The sacking of Mandelson last September was necessary but far too little. Mandy was a binary choice. No redemption on offer. No apologies, or promises to cut the cost of living in the coming year, would do. Starmer had been weighed in the balance by his own party and found wanting. Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.
