A pointed Cabinet readout has appeared in The Times this afternoon:
“In a pointed address to the cabinet on Tuesday morning, the prime minister said he “will not countenance” criticism of Morgan McSweeney… ‘We will learn from our mistakes, but we will not turn in on each other,’ Starmer said. ‘We will not resile from our record of achievement and we will not turn on our staff — including our chief of staff, without whom none of us would be sitting around this cabinet table.’”
Starmer is responding to Guido’s exclusive stories over recent days on the turmoil inside the Downing Street operation. It’s not happy families…
The PM himself freewheeled over the weekend and gave a series of disastrous interviews – including ‘dropping a Baldwin’ – which effectively placed blame for the first year of Labour on his staff. That went down as well as you might expect…
Starmer u-turned on his criticisms of the first year in office at Cabinet too:
“He then reflected on the last year in office, saying we could all rightly look back with a real sense of pride and achievement. The Prime Minister said that because of tough decisions the government had taken, it had a platform to build on, with three trade deals, a spending review that was received well by the public and an industrial strategy received well by businesses both large and small.”
Starmer’s friend and hagiographer Tom Baldwin continues touring the airwaves offering his criticisms of the McSweeney operation. Old hands inside government are briefing Starmer against the current personnel set up. Push and pull inside Downing Street…
There are swirling rumours about the fate of the man who made Starmer. The McIavelli was subject to media briefing over the welfare rebellion last week…
Government sources say there were fears that Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was on the verge of resignation on Friday after Starmer began his impromptu media round by ‘dropping a Baldwin‘ then giving further whingeing interviews over the weekend which went down terribly. A personal repudiation of the ongoing McSweeney project which took Labour from its worst loss since 1935 to a landslide within five years…
SpAds to whom Guido has spoken for the most part don’t expect him to quit. As pundits point out Guido is arrestingly well-sourced – Starmer is being advised by old timers Louise Casey and Jonathan Powell who are not fans of the current personnel set up in Downing Street. Ire is directed at the political team in Downing Street which is seen as excessively junior, as well as at political director Claire Reynolds, who is said to have bungled the management of the now-rebellious Parliamentary Labour Party over welfare. Last month Reynolds was reported to have told MPs that the Labour vision for Britain was a “work in progress.” If Morgan stays there has got to be staff movement somewhere…
Appetite for changes to Downing Street’s personnel has grown over the weekend. A weekend in which Starmer pleaded that he has not in fact been in charge…
The PM ‘dropped a Baldwin‘ on Friday and his hagiographer took pains to spell out that Starmer hated 1. His Rose Garden speech, 2. His Island of Strangers remark, 3. Briefings in Westminster, and that he regretted most of the strident stunts executed by his team. That and a subsequent Sunday Times interview have not gone down well inside government…
The PM also claimed to be too distracted by the Middle East to pay attention to what was going on at home. One Downing Street source tells Guido there is serious consternation inside and the interviews have gone done very badly with SpAds: “he basically blamed us all for allowing him to make poor decisions. That’s not leadership… he can’t be doing that and expect loyalty.”
A shake-up is becoming more likely. Guido hears Starmer is receiving advice behind the scenes from Whitehall veteran Louise Casey who is “not a fan of a lot of the current set up around” the PM. National Security Adviser and Blairite old hand Jonathan Powell also has Starmer’s ear and believes that personnel are “amateurish.” The old guard stepping in…
The mood is febrile and changes to both the political and official personnel rosters – awaited for later in the year – are expected to be accelerated now. Something has to change…
The fragile operation in Downing Street is in meltdown over the welfare bill rebellion. It’s not pretty…
Downing Street sources report that it is an “angry building” this morning and point the finger squarely at chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and political director Claire Reynolds. Reynolds was appointed in late October last year to serve primarily as a liaison between No10, MPs, and the party in general. Co-conspirators can see how that has gone – Reynolds is blamed for poor and infrequent engagement work…
When it comes to the policy operation McSweeney is taking the blame for repeatedly exposing Starmer before an inevitable U-turn. Seen a few of those already…
There is a blame game currently ongoing in which the No10 staff are attacking the whips, who are in turn pointing the finger at the political office for their long knowledge and no action ahead of a potential rebellion. Guido hears the problem has been exacerbated by the fact that senior No10 staff attempted to resolve the growing backbench rebellion without informing Starmer first. As a result of their efforts the revolt only grew…
A Downing Street source tells Guido: “We will have to climb down… total car crash.” Starmer is faced with another humiliation. Guido hears he is minded to rejig the No10 SpAd operation at the same time as he executes a reshuffle…
Downing Street is not keen on letting Angela Rayner chair too many Cabinet meetings. Insecure?
Rayner chaired her first Cabinet meeting last Tuesday while Starmer was at the G7. This was the first time – usually they just cancel them when the PM is away…
If you trust the readout everything went normally. E.g: “The Deputy Prime Minister opened today’s Cabinet by saying her thoughts were with all those who lost loved ones following the devastating Air India plane crash last week. She reflected on attending a memorial service at the Indian High Commission yesterday, and said it was a very moving occasion.” Professional…
Guido hears Downing Street has just cancelled the next few Cabinets for which the PM is absent. Back to the old system. Wouldn’t want people getting any ideas…
Labour has presented its defence for gagging top military personnel. ‘We let one of them speak on-record once’…
Shadow defence minister Mark Francois asked the MoD in a written question “for what reason his Department has advised senior military officers not to speak on the record at events where a Minister is present.” As Guido revealed the gagging order has been imposed by Starmer’s strategic communications director after a row between Downing Street and top defence chiefs…
Armed forces minister Luke Pollard replied today: “This is not true. Recently, the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roly Walker spoke on the record, and live on Sky Television at the RUSI Land Warfare Conference on the same day as the Secretary of State for Defence.” Not the defence Labour thinks it is…
The gagging order is unlikely to be lifted under the current Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin, whose extended term runs until autumn this year. Recent massively impactful military events make the imposition of the gagging order even more farcical…
Kemi Badenoch at the 1922-ConHome bash last night:
“I did praise [Burnham] for his stamina, it was amazing. All I had to do was sit back and lie there. I didn’t have to do anything at all…”