Should he stay or should he go?

[Workingman]

Starmer, that is.

He is not a bad man and not all of Labour's policies are bad, and he has gone some way to nullifying the move leftwards of the party, but can he connect with neutral and swing voters? Unfortunately he is like Ed Miliband - a bit of a personality vacuum - and that's not what voters want.

There is a strong group of centre or just left of centre figures in Labour. Think Benn, Jarvis, Kendall, Cooper, Burnham, Reeves, and so on, but even they can't seem to coalesce behind him. Everything is lukewarm.

It's a shame because now, more than ever, the country needs a strong and effective opposition - to oppose - all democracies do. What we have is a void.

[Suff]

It's a hard row to hoe. Enemy to the front, ready for battle, allies to the rear, knives sharpened and all pointed at your back.

He wanted the job. Now he has to live with it.

[Workingman]

It is all a bit "Back to the Future".

Starmer finds himself like Kinnock after Foot, Hatton and Militant.

Kinnock wasn't particularly popular with the public, though he did carry out the war on Militant - he just hung on too long. It took John Smith to get Labour electable again before he died, but he did pave the way for Blair and Brown.

What Labour needs is a new Mr. or Mrs. John Smith type.

[cromwell]

I think he will go before the next election.
It is a very strange situation. To me it's not the left Starmer needs to worry about but those nearer the centre.
Where is the backing for Starmer from the likes of Benn, Jarvis, Cooper, Kendall, etc? They are very quiet, with the result that Starmer is being attacked by the left and not defended by those that you would suppose would be his friends.

[TheOstrich]

Where is the backing for Starmer from the likes of Benn, Jarvis, Cooper, Kendall, etc? They are very quiet .....

I was just going to say the same thing. I think the wolves are circling, waiting for Starmer to fall, but whether that happens before the next General Election or not, I don't know. WM mentioned Burnham and it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't take a tilt at it sometime.

But the overall picture hasn't changed, and that is that Labour will remain unelectable to the general public whilst the hard-line Left grass-roots activists remain in the party, and they are still very much to the fore - just witness the heckling of Starmer today (although I do wonder if it was, shall we say, "orchestrated" somewhat).

Any bets on Johnson calling another snap election sooner rather than later?

[cromwell]

Any bets on Johnson calling another snap election sooner rather than later?

Imo he would be ill advised to do so.
The petrol supply problems, the channel taxi service for illegals, inflation - recent events have not shown him or his party in a good light.

[Suff]

With the majority he has he'd be insane to do anything before the next election. Because of Covid he couldn't hope to get anything like the same majority he enjoys today.

Boris knows this and wouldn't be so stupid.

Famous last words, perhaps. But I don't think so.

[Workingman]

With recent rule changes Starmer has already started the work on Momentum, and the crew already mentioned will allow him, and a few semi-senior others, to get on with the job of side-lining the likes of McDonnell, McDonald, Harmon, Abbott and their ilk without getting too deeply involved.

They will do this because they know he will be sacrificed eventually. I suspect that a few of those mentioned will be wanting to be the next leader and none of them will want to be tainted by the infighting - they will all want to be seen as "unity" candidates with a clean pair of hands.

It's politics.

[Suff]

A bit like nobody wanted May's job so they gave it to Bo Jo. Lost cause they thought, a bit like giving IDS the leadership when they knew they had no chance of winning.

You can bet that those who thought May's job was a lost cause will be queueing up, sharpened knife in had, as soon as the next election looks close and the polls are showing anything other than a landslide.

In some ways you have to admire Starmer a bit. He must have known this was his identified role (sacrificial lamb), but chose it anyway and decided to try and make a fist of it.

If he wins through I will think lot more of him.

[Workingman]

If he wins through.....

Those mentioned, and others, will be patting him on the back and telling him that they stayed out of the way to let him get the job done.

Then they will produce their prospectuses of what should happen next.

They all do it. It is in their DNA.