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It’s been a weekend of woe for Keir ‘Calamity’ Starmer

It was a super shambles Saturday for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party on 2 October: lurching from crisis to chaos and back to crisis again. But should we have sympathy for him over his weekend of woe? In short, no.

Starmer: dragging Labour downwards

First up, and the latest Opinium poll movement for Starmer after his headline conference speech was one that went downwards:

Meanwhile, a Survation poll from 30 September had Labour up one point – but so were the Tories. Opinium’s assessment that Starmer’s speech was “successful” is debatable. But it was clear that his centrist cheerleaders thought he did a good job:

And while Sky News polling seemed to show people viewed Starmer’s speech favourably, this didn’t seem to matter in the overall polls. So, what does he do next? He writes an opinion piece for the Sun (don’t click the link!).

Writing for the Sun

The article went on about Boris Johnson’s “incompetence” being a threat to Christmas. But the content of Starmer’s piece wasn’t really the point. Because firstly, it looked wholly ridiculous when compared to the Sun‘s own coverage of Labour in the past few days. Some choice headlines:

It’s clear dull Keir Starmer has trump card in vibrant wife Victoria

and:

Labour’s grim and mismatched Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner make a disaster double act

Headlines such as these have littered the shitrag recently. So, given the outlet’s stance on Starmer, it’s unlikely that its readers are suddenly going to think, ‘Yeah, that Keir bloke’s alright! I’d vote for him!’.

Then you have the footage of Starmer during the Labour leadership contest saying he wouldn’t ever speak to the Sun during his leadership bid. It’s clear now that he meant that literally, and not ‘I will never, ever speak to the Sun for the rest of my life’:

Moreover, many people from Liverpool also objected to Starmer writing for the Sun – understandably so. And just when you thought Starmer couldn’t get any worse, enter the Mail on Sunday to deal the final blow.

Crossing the floor

It reported (again, don’t click the link!) that three Labour MPs have been in talks with the Tories to defect. The Mail on Sunday declared:

  • Three Labour MPs are understood to be considering defecting to Conservatives.
  • They are said to have become disillusioned with Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
  • The three MPs have decided to ‘open lines of communication’ with Tory whips.
  • A Labour MP has not ‘crossed’ to join the Tory Party since Reg Prentice in 1977.

But the Mail on Sunday failed to raise a key question: if these MPs might be considering defection because they’re worried Starmer will lose them their seat at the next election. Of course, the story could just be mischief-making by the paper. But people on social media pointed out a few potential floor-crossing candidates:

So, overall, the weekend was a bit grim for Starmer. But given another piece of breaking news, your sympathy for him should be zero.

The purge continues?

Labour is reportedly investigating well-known youth member Hasan Patel. He put out a tweet thread summing up what’s going on:

Responding to the news, chair of Young Labour Jess Barnard has accused the party machinery of “intimidation and bullying”. It seems the party’s ongoing purge of left-wing members has got another victim in its sights.

The UK: freefalling into chaos

The shambles in the Labour Party comes at a time when the UK is freefalling into chaos. From Brexit-related fuel shortages to the Universal Credit cut, the public need a strong, coherent opposition. Starmer’s clusterfucking would be hilarious if the country wasn’t in such an awful situation. Because ultimately, his incompetence and wilful inability to oppose the Tories is a detriment to us all.

Featured image via the Labour Party – YouTube

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on The Canary.