Political Editor WALTER CRONXITE on how Croydon’s Labour politicians responded to the Prime Minister announcing his resignation
On the way out: Uncle Keir making his resignation announcement outside No10 this morning
Keir today, gone tomorrow.
And for Croydon’s right-wing Labour MPs, the scramble to preserve their positions, or to gain some favour under Keir Starmer’s likely successor, Andy Burnham, began even before the Prime Minister had turned away from the Downing Street podium this morning after announcing his resignation.
Croydon MPs Steve Reed OBE (Streatham and Croydon North, if he can be bothered) and Sarah Jones (Croydon West) both expressed their regrets at the downfall of the leader who had given them cabinet-level and junior ministerial jobs respectively since forming the Labour government two years ago.
Housing and local government minister Reed, as co-founder of the Zionist-funded Labour Together project that identified and installed Starmer, first as Labour leader, ultimately as PM, potentially has the most at stake and is at greatest risk, unless the new MP for Makerfield, Burnham, turns out to be some kind of Starmer v2, as many commentators suggest could be the case.
“Uncle Keir”, as Starmer is known in Croydon Labour circles, made his announcement outside No10 this morning.
“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best-placed to lead us into the next General Election,” Starmer said this morning. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question. And I accept that answer with good grace.”
Starmer’s voice trembled a little – Theresa May-like -as he concluded his speech with thanks to his wife and family. But objective Westminster watchers were unsympathetic about Starmer’s plight.
“I suspect he knows he’s been the chief architect of his downfall,” wrote Andrew Fisher, iC columnist, writing for the i newspaper.
Damning with faint praise: Croydon Cllr Stuart King
“Labour is in the last-chance saloon and a heavy burden falls on Andy Burnham to reunite Labour and improve people’s lives.”
Councillor Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group on Croydon Council, was firmly on-message when he told Inside Croydon: “Keir Starmer led the Labour party from the brink, back to power…
“In government, we’ve seen NHS waiting times fall, workers’ rights improved and fair funding for councils like Croydon. These have been real positives for our residents.
“I wish Keir well,” King wrote. “He is a fundamentally decent man who did his best for our country.” Which was an assessment made by many today. And just a little damning with faint praise.
Another political commentator, Ian Dunt, remarked on Starmer’s singular unsuitability to be a leading politician. “The absence at the heart of the Starmer project was simple and profound,” Dunt posted on Substack.
“There was no joy to be found today. There was no satisfaction. Just frustration, and melancholy, and a profound sense of squandered opportunity…
“What was the flaw at the heart of the Starmer project? It was that it had no heart. Starmer, in the end, simply was not interested in politics.”
And Dunt added of Starmer: “He was scheming and Machiavellian. He was really quite shockingly chaotic. And anything that was good in him seemed to fade away entirely. His morality collapsed alongside his popularity.”
And yet the Machiavellianism, the use of Starmer for their own purposes, probably lies more with the Labour Together mob including Reed and Morgan McSweeney, whose manipulation and manoeuvring of Starmer for their advantage was laid out in some detail in Paul Holden’s book, The Fraud.
And none of that has ended. Not yet anyway.
Storm clouds gathering: having helped install Keir Starmer, Steve Reed (right) might have need of his hard hat
It was 9.36am, and Starmer had barely got through his opening remarks on Downing Street when Reed was posting his own tribute (on the bile-splattered platform run by racist zillionaire Elon Musk): “Keir Starmer brought Labour back from the brink, won a landslide majority against all the odds, and is changing Britain for the better,” wrote Reed, showing a poor grasp of event recent history.
“Thank you Keir, we are proud of you,” concluded Reed, demonstrating an ability for the craft of arslikhan he has previously only shown to the water companies, housing developers and his Zionist funders.
Government colleague Jones was hardly less effusive, although at least she did have the good grace to wait a bit until Uncle Keir and Auntie Vicky had scuttled back into No10.
Jones, too, uses the money-making platform run by a man who is trying to bring down this country’s government. Starmer, Jones tweeted, “ensured we were elected on a mandate to change the country”
Decent, but out of his depth: Starmer leaves Downing Street with the lowest approval rating of any PM
Jones gave thanks for being given her Policing Minister job, adding, “In resigning, Keir has once again demonstrated his deep sense of public duty, putting the interests of the country above all else. I’m proud of all that we have achieved in government, and grateful to Keir for his leadership.”
This morning, Inside Croydon had asked the borough’s three Labour MPs who they would be supporting in any Labour leadership run-off.
None bothered to respond, although by lunchtime, after Burnham’s train had arrived at Euston from Manchester almost 10 minutes late, that question had already been rendered moot: with Wes Streeting announcing that he would not be seeking selection as Labour leader and would be backing Burnham. Scenes in Parliament a little later seemed to confirm that the King of the North would indeed get a coronation, rather than a contest, at Westminster.
There will be some kind of Cabinet reshuffle. Starmer might be made Foreign Secretary. Rachel Reeves could be replaced in No11. What’s said, or tweeted, today will be noted by the all-powerful whips’ office. Cards are being marked.
King of the North: Andy Burnham being sworn in as MP at Parliament this afternoon. He could be Prime Minister within a fortnight
So backbench MPs such as Croydon East’s Natasha Irons, will be minding their Ps and Qs, on the off-chance that they might get a chance to clamber up the greasy pole.
Irons appears to have tried to hit a middle ground between “full-on gushing” and “out-right fawning”. She described Starmer’s 2024 General Election win as “a seismic victory”, and rattled off a handful of the administration’s early achievements: half a million children eligible for free school meals; rail services brought into public ownership; NHS waiting lists came down; renters’ rights were strengthened.
“These changes will improve the lives of Croydon East residents for years to come,” Irons told Inside Croydon.
“The Labour government still has more than half of this parliamentary term ahead of it, and there is much more work to do to deliver the change that people voted for… My focus remains firmly on serving my constituents, standing up for our communities and ensuring that Croydon gets the investment and public services it deserves.”
So definitely not looking for a junior ministerial job in a Burnham government then.
Read more: Burnham’s election could make all the difference in Croydon
Read more: The Fraud: how Reed’s Labour spied on Croydon councillors
More Reed: Steve Reed’s aide blocks members’ vote on Mandelson scandal
As vocal as this paper has been about particular reasons for disliking Keir Starmer’s leadership over the Labour Together project, they aren’t the reasons why he is unpopular nationally. I’d like someone to explain why he’s unpopular nationally because I don’t think there’s an clear answer to that. Certainly not one that Burnham is the answer to.
It’s a long list, Annabel. Starmer was only ever a cypher for McSweeney and Reed, doing the Labour Together bidding, with disastrous results, for Starmer personally, for Labour and for the country.
What is a supposedly human rights lawyer doing locking up pensioners for peacefully protesting and exercising their democratic rights? Or even considering getting rid of jury trials? There has been an uncomfortable lurch towards authoritarianism which even those not considered to be “on the left” (whatever that is supposed to mean!) felt was wrong.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but to make this many political mistakes in less than two years in office, at a cost of huge political good will and “capital”, is astonishing. The refusal to abolish the two-child benefit cap. Labour MPs were suspended over this, and yet a year later, that benefit cap was properly removed.
Scrapping winter fuel payments, leaving thousands of pensioners to choose between eating and heating. Cutting benefits for disabled people, as he promised to “stop benefit fraud” (there has been so much pandering to the far right since 2024).
And then the “island of strangers” speech, an appalling piece of nasty rhetoric, even Starmer apologised for later.
Then there were the scandals. Starmer’s anti-corruption tsar was put on trial for corruption. And could you ever trust the judgement of someone when they appoint Peter Mandelson to any job, never mind something as important as Ambassador to Washington (a key move pushed by McSweeney)?
The latter smacked of stupidity and corruption.
The country’s position on Gaza has been unforgiveable.
Then count the number of local council seats Labour lost in May, and Starmer really ought to have gone six weeks ago.
I’ve never heard someone who told me they hated Keir starmer mention any of those things. They mention they hate the way he looks, the way he speaks. But I don’t believe you can hate a persons looks unless you have some sort of trauma wound. So I don’t get it.
Crowd chanting at football matches how they hate keir Starmer aren’t all collectively angry abut any one of the things you mention, they hate him as a person. As I said, I don’t understand it
As Andy Burnham has been out of Westminster politics for years, skulking in the rain in Manchester, does he have any natural allies in the Parliamentary Labour party?
If he is just confirmed as the new Labour leader and PM, I am sure lots of Labour MPs he has never even heard of, will be saying how much they admire his work in Manchester, and experienced brown nosers like the useless Steve Reed will be scheming to get a new Cabinet post (having failed at the Environment and Housing, but there are still plenty of departments he hasn’t wrecked yet).