Labour needs a new leader, but forcing Starmer out would be a mistake, writes Andrew Marr
To have any chance of winning another election, the Labour Party needs to change its leader. But to try to force him out today would be madness.
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The King's speech happens tomorrow, laying out the legislation for the next session – if the Prime Minister is on the way out of the door then the entire thing is a farce, the king is put in a completely impossible position and we will seem ungovernable, ridiculous.
And remember, although this happens at Westminster, this is not a bubble story. It matters to you.
Britain’s long-term borrowing costs are at their highest level since 1998, at the time of the global financial crisis; That’s less money for everything else.
The pound’s falling against the dollar and political instability ripples across the whole business world.
If the Labour left takes over, it’s committed to higher spending and higher taxes.
So, what next? Well, it’s going to be a long week.
Keir Starmer is refusing to budge. He’s done everything short of actually breaking up the front door in Downing Street and unrolling barbed wire around the building. Fair do’s: He’s a stubborn fellow.
And tonight 103 Labour MPs have signed a letter saying this isn’t the time for a leadership contest – rather more than the 88 who are publicly out against him.
So the truth is, it is possible, even now, he’ll ride this out. Trouble is, he doesn’t have the even vaguely united party he needs to govern better.
Ministers have continued to resign today. Despite that, Starmer could limp painfully on with less authority, even less ability to command… unable to shape his future, still less ours.
What would he do about his Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who has told him to his face to go? Or Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, who asked to see him this morning and was brusquely turned down?
It seems to me an utterly miserable prospect – for Keir Starmer and for the rest of us, a kind of sublime apotheosis of pointlessness.
Andy Burnham is in London. Wes Streeting is still deciding what to do. Labour MPs are on the brink, and yet the brink might prove a quiet, dusty place where they can squat for quite a while.
A bitter and lengthy leadership campaign could produce a full-blown financial crisis and perhaps even an early general election.
But in the meantime, everyone, welcome to the brink. Bring water. Bring sleeping bags and join me there.
It could be a long wait…
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Andrew Marr is an author, journalist and presenter for LBC.
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