OPINION
Kemi Badenoch faces a threat other than Nigel Farage (Image: PA)
After the most catastrophic start by any prime minister in my lifetime, with the exception of , I find myself applauding much of what and his government has done these past two weeks. It’s taken me by surprise. Managing a tricky Oval Office chat? Tick. Cutting expenditure on aid to pump more into defence? Tick, tick. Supporting Zelensky, who has led his country through three years of merciless, unprovoked violence from the odious Putin? Tick, tick, tick. Labour also appears, at last, to realise that all that net-zero virtue-signalling could actually undermine growth and prosperity.
It looks like is being sidelined, and that the government might row back on its sillier ideas about combustion engines, gas boilers, airports and oil refineries. Unless we’re being lied to (don’t rule that out), seems to understand that Britain’s humongous welfare bill is unsustainable. And Labour is toughening its stance, from a desperately low base, on illegal migration. But are these moves back towards common sense just flashes in the pan? Will they be snatched away? Will extreme, socialist Labour rear its ugly head once more?
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After all, this is a government that, in its first seven months, raised taxes by a mammoth amount, rewarded striking train drivers with huge pay increases, pumped yet more into the NHS without reform, further undermined free speech, borrowed £40 billion, and took the economy from the top of the G7 to the bottom.
And this is a prime minister who tried his darndest to get Jeremy Corbyn into power, used to support the abolition of the monarchy, had links with communism, demanded a longer, harder lockdown, and reckons that women can have male genitalia.
So perhaps we shouldn’t celebrate the government’s rightwards pivot too soon.
But here’s the deal: Starmer isn’t really in charge. Nor is anyone whose face we might recognise. The guy who matters is Morgan McSweeney, shadowy Chief of Staff, who realised long ago the Corbynites were a disaster, and knew the only solution was to destroy them. This required a malleable yet plausible front man who could pose as “continuity Corbyn” to the members, win their votes, but then haul the party away from the woke far left once in power.
Starmer was happy to play that part. Although ostensibly from Labour’s left, he doesn’t care much about ideology, has no more integrity than any other politician and isn’t bothered by flip-flopping. What he cares about is power. He is spectacularly ambitious. And for any Labour prime minister the best guarantee of power is in the centre, particularly with the struggling so badly.
Well, it’s on the economy that we will know how serious Labour is, and just how successful McSweeney has been in sidelining the left. The autumn budget was a disaster. It was catastrophic for growth, jobs and prosperity and caused Labour’s declining ratings to jump off a cliff. It’s perhaps no coincidence that it took place while McSweeney was ensconced in a power struggle with Sue Gray.
But Labour now has the opportunity, under the cover of the conflict, to target cuts in public spending while committing to no more tax hikes. If Reeves does that, and if Labour then maintains a shift towards the centre, it will put itself in a better position for the years ahead, further profiting from a Tory-Reform split on the right. In fact, Badenoch’s , already squeezed by Reform, could be seriously threatened.
Is Starmer politically savvy enough to appreciate that opportunity? Will his nascent leftness consider it a bridge too far? Well, it doesn’t really matter. It’s what McSweeney thinks that counts.