Peter Mandelson’s ruff week is going from bad to worse. According to Richard Eden, Mandy is staying in Washington for a few more days because his dog requires “medical treatment“. He’ll stay in the British Ambassador’s Residence while the pooch, a collie by the name of Jock, recovers from his illness. Paw thing…
He may not be able to generate enough electricity to power a lightbulb, but former Labour leader Ed Miliband is blamed by senior Labour figures – Guido can reveal – for the crisis currently engulfing Downing Street. And you thought he was just a windmill-loving chump…
Red Ed is back like a blast from the past, reportedly on major manoeuvres after Starmer tried to remove him as Energy Secretary last week. A rash of newspaper briefings recounted how Miliband “defied” Downing Street and managed to cling onto the brief – removing him was meant to be a key plank of the doomed ‘phase two’ reshuffle…
Miliband’s personal politics are to the left of the No10 apparat around Starmer. He is seen within Labour special adviser circles as a key orchestrator of the ‘soft left’ tendency in the PLP. It will not have gone unnoticed in Number 10 that Miliband has endorsed Lucy Powell for the Labour deputy leadership, not Downing Street’s candidate Bridget Phillipson. Insiders suggest Miliband’s invective against Starmer is powered by the fantasy that he may make a return, or be the kingmaker in the appointment of a ‘soft left’ leader such as Burnham or Nandy…
Multiple senior Labour figures pointed the finger at the Miliband camp over inflammatory briefings aimed at undermining Starmer’s authority. The shadow of the Ed stone is looming over Downing Street…
Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones has refused to say when the first small boats migrant will be returned under the much-vaunted ‘one in, one out’ deal with France. Yesterday the first deportation of a Channel migrant was cancelled last-minute due to protests by charities and threats of legal action…
Speaking on Times Radio, the minister refused to say if returns would happen this week and wouldn’t provide a timeline:
“I’m not going to comment or give a running commentary on what is happening here. These deportations will be happening as soon as possible. If I was to break down with you exactly a time-by-time, day-by-day movement on our returns policy, then that would be giving these abhorrent people smugglers exactly what they want.”
An odd line of defence, given Downing Street’s heavy briefings last week confidently promising returns would begin this week. No wonder the government doesn’t have a benchmark figure of success for the deal…
UPDATE: Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says:
“Labour has failed to deport a single illegal immigrant yesterday or today as they had promised – the flights both took off without a single migrant on board. The new Home Secretary is just as ineffective as the last one. The government’s latest gimmick is a joke.”
Week three of ‘Phase 2’ is getting no easier for Starmer. Or his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney…
McSweeney is becoming increasingly exposed via a blame game over the loss of his personal mentor Peter Mandelson – whom he attempted to keep in post as ambassador up until the end – and yesterday’s departure of Paul Ovenden, a well-respected crucial ally in No10. It is becoming lonely at the top…
The Tories’ success in securing an urgent three-hour debate in the Commons on the Mandelson issue will result in torture for Labour. A Downing Street source tells Guido that political staff spent all of yesterday and “all weekend trying to piece together an acceptable timeline to excuse the inexcusable,” adding that McSweeney’s “f**k-up is now causing untold damage.” What began as concerned whispers about the McIavelli has turned into a chorus…
Starmer’s position post-Mandelson sacking as first publicly stated yesterday is described by an insider as: “I only knew Mandelson was sort of fond of Epstein and if I knew he really liked him I wouldn’t have appointed him.” Farcical…
A Downing Street source tells Guido it is “shocking” for McSweeney to have left Starmer so exposed and “a lot of us are losing patience with him.” It has meanwhile been briefed that McSweeney is the driving brain behind a forthcoming meeting of ‘progressives’ in London for Starmer to get involved with. Wow…
Unemployment remained at 4.7% in the three months to July, with regular earnings dropping to 4.8% in the same period. The ONS’s director of economic statistics said said:
“The labour market continues to cool, with the number of people on payroll falling again, while firms also told us there were fewer jobs in the latest period… the weakness is reflected in a slight increase on the quarter in the unemployment rate [with] the number of vacancies also falling on the quarter, though the rate of decline appears to be slowing.”
With all these government resignations, is it any wonder?
As if it wasn’t enough for Starmer to endure the Cabinet and No10 team ripping itself apart, the far left is now getting involved. Yesterday’s revelations about a former senior No10 aide didn’t come from the lobby – they are instead contained in the forthcoming book ‘The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy’ by Paul Holden. Material the Tories could only dream of…
The book is endorsed by most of the prominent figures on the British anti-Labour left including Owen Jones and Zarah Sultana. These figures have now all left Labour post-Corbyn and are attacking the party from the outside…
The blurb relates: “McSweeney’s clique often employed dirty tricks to undermine the left-wing Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, fuelling a moral panic over antisemitism and establishing front groups that hobbled prominent independent media outlets in the name of fighting ‘misinformation. McSweeney then guided Starmer to the Labour leadership on a platform that Starmer, once in office, almost instantly betrayed.”
It continues: “Having conquered the party on false pretences, McSweeney and his allies set about purging opponents, marginalising the membership, and dragging party policy to the right… This is a sordid tale that includes hacked emails, anonymous smears, dodgy dossiers, cynical stitch-ups, and staggering hypocrisy. It traces the Labour Party’s transformation into a censorial, authoritarian machine, and sounds the alarm about the possible corruption of British politics by dark money.”
The book runs to 542 pages and is due to ship shortly. Panic stations…
Douglas Alexander – a friend of Starmer’s – was asked on Sky News if the PM will be in post at the next election. He wasn’t so sure himself:
“I think he will. There are no certainties but of course I think he will lead and I think he should because, frankly, on the biggest call in this parliament he’s exercised the right judgment, which is to keep us out of someone else’s war.”