CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

“Curtains For Keir:” UK Premier Keir Starmer is Out

Keir Starmer at Number 10 Downing Street upon his appointment. Picture by Kirsty O’Connor/ No 10 Downing Street. OGL 3

But what we’re really seeing is a grotesque blend of the worst of Thatcherism with the worst of Blairism: bad aspects of “neoliberalism” coexisting with bad aspects of bureaucratic statism. The result combines top-down statist nitpicking with Thatcherite ownership models; corporate, Whitehall and town hall management structures amalgamating into a public-private-partnership blob…. – Political commentator Jonny Ball

But what we’re really seeing is a grotesque blend of the worst of Thatcherism with the worst of Blairism: bad aspects of “neoliberalism” coexisting with bad aspects of bureaucratic statism. The result combines top-down statist nitpicking with Thatcherite ownership models; corporate, Whitehall and town hall management structures amalgamating into a public-private-partnership blob….

– Political commentator Jonny Ball

After Labour’s disastrous performance in local elections in England and parliamentary elections in Wales and Scotland in May, it became highly likely that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister were numbered. This proposition was confirmed by the result of the Makerfield byelection a few days ago in which the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham (though he is Liverpudlian), widely tipped to launch a bid to overthrow Starmer as prime minister if he won the byelection and entered parliament, did so with a huge majority, tallying over 50% of the vote.

Before the byelection Starmer lurched, seemingly almost weekly, from one political stumble to another. Numerous “relaunches”, “rebrandings”, and “resets” followed these stumbles, along with renewed pledges with regard to “mission” and “delivery”. All to no avail. Management-speak could not cloak the paucity of significant policy proposals and their implementation. Beyond vacuous soundbites, there was simply no considered argument advanced on behalf of the “mission” and what “delivery” was really about.

The background to Starmer’s failure has been revealed by several biographies and accounts of his precipitous rise to power. Starmer became an MP in 2015, having been Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013 (for which he received his knighthood). He was elected leader of the Labour party in 2020, following Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation after Labour’s defeat at the 2019 general election. Starmer campaigned for the party leadership under what soon turned out to be a false prospectus.

His leadership campaign hinged on Labour’s broadly social-democratic general election manifesto, which he promptly jettisoned once he won the leadership contest. He then purged the party of its leftists, with the aim of restoring Labour’s Blairite wing to ascendency within the party. Leaks and disclosures since the 2024 election indicate quite clearly that the Blairites plotted within Labour HQ to defenestrate Corbyn, while receiving........

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