Amiren – LVI
Keir Starmer , Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party , has recently come under increased pressure and scrutiny throughout the country over how effectively his leadership and party is running the county , alongside dealing with the many salient issues he claims are due to the ‘14 years of tories leadership’, an answer continuously used whenever he comes under pressure by means of any form of scrutiny . An answer the people of this country are continuously tired of . People often use the expression ‘building your bones off of someone else’s back ‘ and the Prime Minister is no exception to this , passing the buck of blame for any misfortune or complaints on his favorite scapegoat ; the Conservative Party and their 14 years of leadership . The ‘bones’ in which he uses to prop up his own party , such as the failures of the Conservative government (eg.Brexit or the way in which the pandemic was handled ) and their subsequent ‘poor’ leadership , are the very ‘bones’ that will break his own back. The PM is quick to scrutinise the past Conservative leadership , which I have to admit is admirable ,considering the fact that under his own current leadership ,the amount of Labour rebels are rapidly increasing , not to mention the fact that they are growing bolder and bolder , even going publicly to criticise the party , such as Clive Lewis (‘Not up to the job” , when talking about Starmer) or Graham Stringer (‘last chance saloon’), speaking the minds of the British people ,in the fact that in their minds , the PM has got one chance to make it right. The fact that these are people in the Prime Minister’s own party and are openly stating that his leadership popularity has taken a nose dive and recognising the fact that he is skating on thin ice , tells me all I need to know . Starmer is on a slippery slope and he is coming increasingly under the threat of his leadership being impeached by his own party and being replaced with a new shiner leader to take over , one who fully embodies the direction in which the Labour Party want to continue in. Someone popular within the Labour Party and The public . Someone like Andy Burnham , dubbed the ‘King of the North’. The newspaper , ‘The New Statesman ‘ explains in very clear terms that the way in which the Labour Party leadership works is that if the party wants to change the leader ,’a contest must be triggered with challengers nominated by 20 percent of the MP’s’ (80 MPs ). To the average person , 80 Labour MP’s doesn’t seem like a very easy challenge , in fact , it has previously been described as ‘formidable ‘ . However , the way in which the Labour Party has been running has changed massively ; Labour MP’s are not always completely devoted and loyal to voting the way in which the party wants , irrespective of the whips and have now become independent thinkers ,putting what they personally believe is in their best interest ,instead of what they have been told to vote . This means that if Labour MPs are voting what they believe is right , such as voting against and defeating its own welfare bill or the fact that ‘116 MPs publicly defied number 10 to nominate Lucy Powell’ for the role of deputy , within the party , it is of no surprise that this places Starmer in a position of complete exposure and vulnerability ; it would not be hard to challenge his position as leader. Already , Labour supporters and sources have identified the fact that people are looking for alternate leadership ,such as Andy Burnham , a popular Labour potential candidate as the new leader and PM. Unfortunately for Keir Starmer , this is terrible news , as Andy Burnham is ‘The most popular politician in the country ‘ , according to a senior Labour source and Starmer is known as an uncharismatic , too central politician , dubbed by the opposition as ‘ a caretaker Prime Minister ‘ . If the Prime Minister even makes it as far as the next Labour leadership contest, irrespective of the next general election , he needs to react accordingly to the threats he faces by MPs , such as Andy Burnham or even Wes Streeting or he will be thrown out as the leader of his party and subsequently , PM . His leadership is crumbling , his reputation is failing and on top of this , his past poor judgement calls has meant that Labour is in a turbulent time , coming under criticism and increasing scrutiny by the public , past and present MPs and even endorsers of the Labour Party . One such example of this is with a woman called Andrea Egon. In the past , opposition to Keir Starmer have gone to extreme lengths to call him a terrible leader , with no charisma and describing the way in which he runs his party , using terms like ‘managerial ‘ and ‘cautious ‘ and claims that he alienates both sides as he is too left wing for critics and yet too central for labour supporters . Now , these criticisms don’t seem as harsh when it comes to the poor judgement that Starmer took in the case of Andrea Egon. Back in 2022, Egon was expelled from the Labour Party for sharing articles from Socialist appeal(a mainstream Andy Burnham supporter), according to The Independent newspaper . However , this action made by the PM has caused the Labour Party to lose a key ally and financial supporter , as Andrea Egon has recently become the new leader of UNISON , ‘The UK’s largest trade union , serving more than 1.3 million members’ which had previously given the Labour Party 2.6 million in donations . This action has also caused a wave of backlash and loss of support from other contributors , such as Unite , the other largest trade union , who has openly discussed disaffiliating from the Labour Party , both unions have become ‘hostile to Starmer’s leadership ‘. Considering the fact that the Labour Party was founded to help set up trade unions and protect working class people , it is very distressing to see that the two largest trade unions in the UK have turned against the Prime Minister. Criticism over Keir Starmer’s leadership is now no longer coming from the opposition ; the threat is in fact much closer , with his own party members and allies turning against his brash , uncharismatic rule . At some point the Prime Minister needs to wake up and realise that the time has come for someone else to take over the Labour party’s reins and as PM . To be fair to him , Keir Starmer has made some pretty impressive progress with the Labour Party and if it not was for some of his ‘good ‘ leadership , it is highly possible that Labour may not have won the 2024 general election . However, he doesn’t have half the amount of support he previously had , like in the aftermath of the 2021 Hartlepool By-election , where he was able to persuade MPs to support him and he managed to produce a recovery . Turbulent times , such as dealing with an ‘insurgent reform and a fragile economy’ , are characterising the political landscape right now and whilst there are better candidates and prospects who would do a better job at preventing the threats facing the Uk as the leader of the Labour Party and as PM, it is time for Starmer to step aside and allow someone else to step into his shoes.