Humiliation for Starmer as Question Time audience blasts Labour chaos | Politics | News
BBC Question Time viewers united in condemning Labor after a week in which Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership appeared to be hanging by a thread. Many viewers of Thursday’s show, filmed in central London, the center of Labour’s traditional support, criticized Sir Keir and the Government for the chaos that followed the briefing, which attacked Health Secretary Wes Streeting for allegedly plotting against the Prime Minister.
The episode began with a Londoner asking: “Labour promised at the last election that ‘the adults will now be back in the room’. After this week’s Cabinet briefings and internal sniping, where are they?” Labor minister Alex Davies-Jones admitted the week’s headlines were “a regrettable distraction, to say the least” from the Government’s policy agenda.
Ms Davies-Jones said she understood why voters care about this, “because they care about the character of the man who runs our country; that’s right, that’s only natural”.
He said this week’s briefing and headlines “made me angry, I think it made everyone angry because it’s drama we don’t need.”
He added: “I accuse whoever is responsible for leaking this of briefing against us. We have a really big job to do in terms of rebuilding our country… This is not helpful to say the least.”
Defending Sir Keir, she insisted he was focused on serving voters.
But when presenter Fiona Bruce returned to the audience for their views, it was clear that the Labor Secretary’s defense had failed to convince them.
A second audience member asked why voters should believe Sir KEIR has “full confidence” in his private secretary after he sacked two high-profile figures in whom he previously claimed to have “full confidence”.
The audience member noted: “One of the people not mentioned is Morgan McSweeney and her role in this. The Prime Minister said he has ‘full confidence’ in her and she’s not going anywhere.”
“We’ve heard this twice before, with Angela Rayner (who he trusted completely and now he’s gone) and Lord Mandelson (who he trusted completely and now he’s gone).
“So why is it different the third time? Why should we believe a senior minister when there is someone who had confidence in a senior minister twice before and did not trust him a few days later?”
A third member joked that this week looked “like number 10 in an episode of The Traitors.”
A fourth exploded: “The whole country is sane. Every time they turn on the TV or watch the news, everything is dreary and dreary. When will something positive happen? That’s what the country needs.”
Finally, one woman raged: “Actually, this is a complete mess and people have lost trust in all parties. Nobody trusts anyone and in fact we are a joke around the world.”
Reform England’s Danny Kruger said the reason the Government was falling apart was because the Prime Minister “didn’t actually believe in anything and came into the Government saying he was going to bring change without any plan”.
