Starmer has disagreed publicly with Healey over his resignation and promised to fight a leadership contest. Still going…
In an interview with Chris Mason on the BBC, Starmer said of Healey: “I have the highest respect for the individuals that you have quoted and they say there’s not enough. But I don’t agree.” He also said every department is taking a cut to boost defence spending: “Yes, everybody is contributing to this, every single one.“ At the same time he said he was “not prepared to cut our public services”…
He insisted the DIP would be published before the NATO summit and that “defence will be the number one priority in that spending review and spending reviews beyond that.” It’s what he was saying before his Defence Secretary resigned…
On leadership:
“I’m not going to go away. I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election… Well, I don’t think it should happen, but if it does then I will fight. And let me just be clear with you. That’s not about personal vanity. It’s not about stubbornness. It’s out of a very deep sense of duty.”
Though when Chris Mason said: “You will lead Labour into the next general election,” Starmer replied: “Well that’s what I want to do.” Getting a scent of the coffee…
At the end Starmer said: “I recognise that, you know, I’ve got to turn things around. We had a very bad set of elections.” Indeed…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”