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Keir Starmer is using this morning’s cabinet meeting to underline the message he has been sending to more junior ministers over the past few days: he’s not going without a fight. Part of his argument is that he’s got loads to do, which must come as a surprise to anyone who read the King’s Speech.
One of the big things Starmer wants to show his party he can do is address the hot-button issue of children’s access to social media, first with his threat to tech firms yesterday that they have three months to stop children being able to send or see explicit content.
Starmer and Burnham are both symptoms of Labour’s big problem, which is that the party really doesn’t know what it wants to do
It is striking, though, that Starmer is moving now on this when one of his ex-ministers, Jess Phillips, accused him of dragging his feet for months on the matter when she resigned. Phillips was praised yesterday in the Commons for her work, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood telling MPs that Starmer’s ultimatum was a ‘landmark moment in the protection of children in this country.’ She added: ‘I will end by paying tribute to the woman who has pushed for this harder than anyone else, my hon. friend and former colleague in the Home Office, the Member for Birmingham Yardley. The children of this country will be safer as a result of her work.’
