UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suffered a “total clusterfuck of Godzilla proportions”, being forced to totally emasculate his reform bill to narrowly swerve a massive parliamentary rebellion by his own colleagues, leaving his authority in tatters and fostering the unmistakable impression of a country that is rapidly becoming ungovernable.
Even with a historic majority, the Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer finds it cannot execute its agenda because the political ratchet on spending can apparently only go in one direction. Despite having been expressly elected to reform welfare and not raise taxes — both of which are in the Labour manifesto (platform) on which its Members of Parliament stood last year — the PM has spent the past few days scrambling to prevent a rebellion by his MPs to kill his flagship welfare bill.
Ultimately, team Starmer was able to jettison enough of the bill to buy back the votes of his party colleagues. Yet, so much of the bill had to be scrapped that it essentially accomplishes nothing, with the vote being held purely as a face-saving exercise.
The Daily Telegraph cites a Labour Member of Parliament — speaking anonymously, of course, in such a time of rebellion — who called Tuesday night’s Parliamentary vote a “total clusterfuck of Godzilla proportions”. The paper further notes a “morose” government minister, these being the people who celebrate the first anniversary of their historic election victory this week, as remarking, “today is not a good day”.
It is certainly not a good day for the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom who work for a living and who now face even more tax hikes to pay for the efficiency savings the bowdlerised bill didn’t achieve. Government minister and Starmer ally Pat McFadden told The Times on Wednesday morning that failing to cut the UK’s enormous welfare bill will have “financial consequences”.
As it is, Labour promised no tax rises on working people in its election manifesto, and promised to abide by that again today. The reassurance of this may be limited, however, given how many u-turns have been enacted in the past few months by the leftist government, it is evident Sir Keir isn’t much in control of events and has a propensity to being led by the backbenches.
Yet, the promise to the public had already been broken in spirit, at least, if not in the narrowly technical sense, after the government quickly moved to hike payroll levies, a tax on jobs, quickly after taking power.
Meanwhile, Labour rebels have already moved on from their victory in neutering Starmer’s reforms to set their sights on the greater goal, tax rises on those they deem wealthy. Even hikes on income tax are mooted by the rebels, portending a potential clobbering for practically everyone who works.
In aggregate, the Starmer U-turns illustrate a Britain where the state is bound by a political ratchet, where spending and taxation can only go in one direction. In a year the Prime Minister has gone from the victor, finessing a record-low number of votes into a massive parliamentary majority, to a heckled and indecisive Prime Minister whose days appear to be severely limited.
Given his Chancellor Rachel Reeves was seen to be sitting besides him crying in the Parliamentary chamber on Wednesday, the question now must be how much longer Starmer truly has before those party colleagues move against him.
Were that to be the case, Starmer’s astonishingly short time at the top follows years of micro-leaderships from the Conservatives, who equally found themselves unable to lead. While much of this must be down to personal failings it leaves a concerning possibility that the United Kingdom is sliding towards being ungovernable, no matter who holds the great offices of state.
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