Stop the anonymous briefings and show respect, two ministers tell Labour MPs | Labour
Two cabinet ministers have warned their Labor colleagues against undermining anonymous briefings, arguing that publicly waging factional warfare is disrespectful to voters as the party prepares for a possible leadership contest.
The comments by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds came as Labor MPs gathered for Labor’s weekly meeting in parliament late on Monday.
Since Labour’s disastrous results in elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English councils, there have been a number of briefings, often attributed to Keir Starmer’s “allies” or “supporters” or those hoping to replace him, such as Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham.
Cooper began by saying he had spent the weekend meeting former Labor councilors in the West Yorkshire constituency who lost their seats on May 7 “to apologize to them for having to deal with national issues and issues in what was supposed to be a local campaign”.
He said: “We need to deal with the aftermath of this and there will be serious debate within our party about how we respond and how we learn the lessons. “But based on nearly 30 years in parliament, I can say that the way we debate matters too.
“When it is reported that ‘the things Labor people say about each other are unprintable’, frankly, I don’t care who you are in our party and I don’t care what you think the answer is for the future, we treat each other with respect. And above all, we respect the people across the country who trust us to continue to focus on the things that matter most to them.”
Speaking at the same event, Reynolds said he wanted to remind Labor MPs to support each other rather than inform in a damaging way.
“I just want to say, no matter what, we are the government,” he said. “Our first duty, our first responsibility, is to do the job, to be accountable, to understand why we do everything we do, and that’s our duty to our constituents, but it’s also our duty to each other.
“I wanted to highlight this in terms of some of the comments and exchanges I’ve seen among my colleagues over the past few days. Please let us never forget why we are here and who we are here to serve.”
Examples of anonymous briefings in recent days include Starmer’s supporters saying Streeting had “bottled” a leadership bid; A claim that describes newly elected MPs in 2024 as “indecisive” and inexperienced; and another calls Streeting “a recently collapsed backbencher”.
Certainly not all of the anonymous quotes come from MPs; many come from officials, consultants or others.
