{"id":326358,"date":"2026-04-25T05:29:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326358"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:26:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:26:57","slug":"he-has-lost-all-authority-and-respect-starmer-enters-the-end-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326358","title":{"rendered":"He has lost all authority and respect\u2019 \u2013 Starmer enters the end game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gordon Rayner \u2013 The Telegraph April 24, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

If you stood anywhere inside the Palace of Westminster and chucked a paper dart right now, you could be pretty sure you would hit someone discussing one of three questions: will Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> go, when will he go, and who will replace him?<\/p>\n

It is self-evident that if people are talking about the Prime Minister\u2019s future, they are not discussing how this Government is going to make the country better, and the problem for Britain is that the same is true in No 10.<\/p>\n

Instead of finding solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, energy prices, illegal immigration<\/a> or defence spending, the collective brainpower of Downing Street is preoccupied with fighting one crisis after another just to keep Sir Keir in a job.<\/p>\n

Forget having a five-year plan. Whitehall sources say there isn\u2019t even a five-day plan right now, as each day\u2019s main target is simply surviving until tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The resulting paralysis means nothing is getting done, Labour insiders admit. They talk of \u201cinertia\u201d in No 10, which is spreading to the Civil Service<\/a>. Civil servants know a lame duck when they see one, and the danger for Sir Keir is that his instructions will be ignored by officials because they assume he is on his way out.<\/p>\n

\u2018[Starmer] has now lost all respect\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThere is nothing happening at all,\u201d according to one Labour Party<\/a> insider. \u201cThey can\u2019t make decisions, there is no organisation, they are just trying to get through the day. But Starmer won\u2019t quit so this will just drag on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior Labour figure said: \u201cHe has not just lost authority, he has now lost all respect and, once that\u2019s gone, there\u2019s no getting it back. People at Cabinet level are openly talking about timelines to replace him so of course they\u2019re not taking instructions from him anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of his defining characteristics is that he doesn\u2019t have a view on anything \u2013 whenever anyone goes to him for a decision he always says, \u2018I will talk to the team\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that team included people like Sue Gray<\/a> or Morgan McSweeney, there was a chance of getting an answer, but now it\u2019s [acting chief of staff] Vidhya Alakeson and a team of junior people who are pretty hopeless, so nothing gets progressed and he just picks up his briefs and concentrates on foreign policy stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is fury among many Labour MPs at the Prime Minister\u2019s decision to have the King\u2019s Speech \u2013 setting out the legislative programme for the new parliamentary session \u2013 on May 13, six days after the local election<\/a>s.<\/p>\n

They see it as a sign of desperation: knowing that Labour is likely to be battered on May 7, Sir Keir wants to give the media something else to talk about in the days after the poll. Government sources have privately admitted the timing will make it harder for anyone to launch a leadership challenge on the back of poor election results, because the new agenda will be locked in.<\/p>\n

As a result of having a King\u2019s Speech earlier than necessary (the timing is very much up to the Prime Minister), several parliamentary bills will fail to become law before the end of the current session, meaning they will be junked. Around 14 are in the late stages of passing through Parliament, and up to half of those will fail to make the cut.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Protester wearing a Starmer mask. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

One Labour backbencher said: \u201cThey have chosen the date for the King\u2019s Speech based on what is good for Starmer, not what is good for the country. We have spent months working on bills that now won\u2019t make it through Parliament, all to try to distract the media from the local election results when they come through.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sort of wheeze a lawyer would come up with, rather than a politician, because the only thing that could save Sir Keir now would be if he came up with a vision for the country that captured the public\u2019s imagination. Even his supporters don\u2019t expect that to happen, given that he failed to come up with a plan for the country during his distraction-free four years in opposition.<\/p>\n

Journalists had been tipped off about a likely Cabinet reshuffle after the local elections, but there is now doubt as to whether that will go ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cReshuffles are tricky enough things for prime ministers who are strong and powerful, never mind ones that are useless,\u201d said a Labour veteran. \u201cIf he tries to move people, they might just say, \u2018No\u2019. They don\u2019t even feel sorry for him any more. They just think he is a guy with terrible judgment that will never get better, who just keeps sacking people to save his own job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior government source described the mood as miserable and lacklustre, saying \u201ceveryone is depressed\u201d. They pointed out that few cabinet ministers have been out campaigning for Labour before the local elections \u2013 which are only two weeks away \u2013 for fear of being personally associated with the expected disastrous results.<\/p>\n

The Government was reduced this week to announcing a legal ban on smartphones in schools<\/a> \u2013 something it admitted was already happening anyway \u2013 to give the impression that decisions were being taken. Needless to say, the policy is an about-turn, as Labour had previously dismissed the idea as an unnecessary gimmick, and it has the advantage of being cost-free.<\/p>\n

The source admitted that \u201cthe centre needs to be bold\u201d to get robust solutions to the country\u2019s problems through Parliament, but \u201cit can\u2019t because it\u2019s weak\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, decided to make a speech this week promising to \u201cdouble down, not back down\u201d on his race to net zero<\/a>, the timing of which surprised many observers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiliband did that because he is frustrated by the lack of movement, by the Government not being bold enough,\u201d said a Labour source. \u201cHe believes in something, he has a cause, and Starmer should bear in mind that he has courage \u2013 he took out his own brother when he beat him to the Labour leadership [in 2010]. He will be a key figure in deciding when Starmer\u2019s time is up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might seem obvious that the only way to unblock the obstruction at the heart of the Government is to get rid of Sir Keir, but Labour MPs fear that might make things even worse.<\/p>\n

According to a member of the House of Lords: \u201cYou can\u2019t move in Parliament for bumping into people who think he should go, but there aren\u2019t that many who say they\u2019re going to do anything about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople go round and round in circles, saying \u2018Starmer has to go\u2019, then \u2018but what if Angela Rayner<\/a> gets the job, so maybe it\u2019s better to keep Starmer for now\u2019, then there\u2019s another crisis and we\u2019re back to \u2018Starmer has to go\u2019, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veterans of Boris Johnson<\/a>\u2019s time as prime minister see parallels between Sir Keir\u2019s situation and Mr Johnson\u2019s final days in office.<\/p>\n

Guto Harri, who was Mr Johnson\u2019s last director of communications<\/a>, says: \u201cI remember in 2022 Boris wanted to sort out energy security by building eight or nine new nuclear power stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had three or four months where we were having meetings on this with civil servants, and it never got beyond them looking into branding or very preliminary stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoris wanted them to give him the plans, give him a shovel, but they wouldn\u2019t do anything because they didn\u2019t expect him to be there much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Mr Johnson made a speech promising money for just one new plant \u2013 Sizewell C \u2013 in September 2022, by which time he had already announced his resignation.<\/p>\n

Mr Harri said living from one crisis to another, as Mr Johnson was at the time, was \u201ca massive distraction\u201d for a government, \u201cwhen you don\u2019t know whether you will get through the day or the week\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt consumes energy, focus, morale, you\u2019re running on empty and people start finger-pointing. Things that should be a matter of routine become tricky, like when Boris went to the Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and got booed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dice just seems loaded against you. It undermines your stature on the world stage and in meetings and the Civil Service stops trying to get anything done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabinet ministers are telling colleagues that \u201cyou can change the leader but it doesn\u2019t change the numbers\u201d, pointing out that the deficit and national debt will not suddenly go away just by switching out the person at the top.<\/p>\n

The problem for Sir Keir is that virtually no one in Labour thinks the party can win the next election with him in charge, so he will have to be replaced at some point. Even those who fear Ms Rayner getting the job concede that Labour will need to \u201croll the dice\u201d eventually.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir undoubtedly brought that moment closer this week with his astonishing attack on the Civil Service, which he blames for not telling him Lord Mandelson had failed the vetting process<\/a> before taking up the post of ambassador to the US, from which he was later sacked.<\/p>\n

By picking a fight with the Civil Service \u2013 and with Sir Olly Robbins, the former Foreign Office permanent secretary, in particular \u2013 Sir Keir has made it even more likely that civil servants will down tools and refuse to do what he wants them to.<\/p>\n

Some observers saw this as proof that Sir Keir was not thinking beyond the end of each day. He survived Monday by heaping the blame on Sir Olly, even though he knew that risked another crisis on Tuesday, when a riled Sir Olly gave his own version of events to MPs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One friend of Sir Keir\u2019s said: \u201cI would be very surprised if he resigned of his own volition. The only thing he believes in is himself, and that trumps everything. Nothing is ever his fault so he doesn\u2019t see why he should take the blame for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Labour insider asked: \u201cWhat is this Government for? No one knows. What is Keir going to look back on as his achievements as Prime Minister? I can\u2019t think of any. At least Liz Truss<\/a> had the excuse that she wasn\u2019t around long enough to achieve anything, but he can\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unless 81 Labour MPs \u2013 20 per cent of the parliamentary party \u2013 can pluck up the courage to challenge Sir Keir publicly and trigger a leadership election, as Labour\u2019s rules dictate, there is a very real possibility he will stay put for some time to come, in his personal game of whack-a-mole, while most of the Government twiddle their thumbs.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Keir Starmer may be in his final days but so too is the Labour Party. As what was once regarded as a pillar of British politics is now totally out of touch with the views of ordinary Britons and intent on its own traitorous agenda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326358"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326373,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326358\/revisions\/326373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}