Starmer’s ‘put up or shut up’ message to his rivals is overshadowed by a new scandal
Keir Starmer is a prime minister who could not seize the opportunity, even if he managed to hide, to mount a fight to save his premiership.
Moments after he gave his critics and rivals the message to “shut up or shut up” at a moment when he was challenged about his future as Prime Minister, news broke that Lord Matthew Doyle, whom he had first chosen as director of communications and later personally appointed to the Lords, had been suspended by Labor over his links to a pedophile.
The latest chapter in the ongoing crisis for the prime minister, who has struggled to draw a line under the chaos within his party after the most turbulent day of his term as prime minister to date, threatens to push Starmer back to the brink.
Starmer’s admission that he appointed Peter Mandelson to the role of US ambassador despite knowledge of his ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein led to the loss of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and subsequent questions about his judgment and integrity led to calls for a change of leader.
Now he faces tough questions about a different Labor colleague.
Lord Matthew Doyle campaigned after Sean Morton was charged with indecent images of children in 2017, saying he believed his claims of innocence, but the councilor later admitted possessing the images.
In a statement, Lord Doyle apologized “unreservedly” for supporting Moray councilor Morton before the case against him was concluded.
He also said he had “extremely limited” contact with Morton after his conviction.
For a party that has been repeatedly accused of being slow to act, this latest news is the last thing Sir Keir needs.
Moments before Lord Doyle apologized, at a community center in Hertfordshire the prime minister stood surrounded by Union Jack banners and insisted he would “never give up the job I’ve been given to change this country”.
In his first public appearance since weathering the toughest day of his premiership so far, Sir Keir said: “I will never walk away from the people I am accused of fighting for. And I will never walk away from the country I love.”
This flippant statement recalls a statement by another beleaguered prime minister more than three decades ago. In 1995, as John Major resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, he said it was “time to put up or shut up” with his critics and challenged the right-wing cabinet minister Sir John Redwood to run against him in a leadership bid. Politicians quickly rallied behind Mr. Major and he recognized the threat.
But this political drama took place three years after the narrowly won general election; Not just 19 months since one of the largest majorities in history was won.
Following Monday’s failed coup – with Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar seemingly in the fall man role – it was clear that Sir Keir had to come forward, face the public and issue a defiant message showing he would not back down.
But he was talking to the Labor Party as well as the chamber. The message may have been aimed at health minister Wes Streeting, who is accused by MPs of being behind the dramatic press conference in which Mr Sarwar urged Sir Keir to leave.
The health minister has publicly backed Sir Keir. But his unilateral decision to publish WhatsApp and email correspondence with the disgraced Lord Mandelson – revealing his opposition to government policy on the Middle East and the economy – was also a challenge to Sir Keir’s authority.
Mr Streeting claimed he was merely clearing his name and proving he had “nothing to hide” about his links to the former US ambassador. The Prime Minister’s spokesman refused to back Streeting on the move and reiterated that “due process” must be followed while the material is examined by police.
But his failure to dismiss underlined the prime minister’s lack of authority and why he had to emerge the next day to regain that authority.
As Doyle’s latest crisis underlines, Sir Keir remains very vulnerable. He will have to go through a very tough by-election in Gorton and Denton later this month and if he survives that he will face an even more worrying local and devolved election on May 7.
But now that he is unburdened by his former chief of staff, McSweeney, as well as supporters such as McSweeney’s former communications director, Tim Allan, Sir Keir has a chance at a moment of genuine renewal.
The prime minister should be free to finally speak from the heart as he demonstrates his defiance and prove that he is the prime minister everyone thinks he is when he is elected in a landslide victory in July 2024.
The fight and the message that he is not afraid to be front and center of his government’s efforts are a start.
But there will be those who remember that Major destroyed the pretenders to the throne, only to lead his party to a disastrous general election defeat two years later.
Now Sir Keir will not only have to escape the stench and scandal, but he will also have to prove that he will not follow the same path as the Major and that he can be a winner beyond just surviving coup attempts.
