Labour’s union paymasters are once again trading blows with Labour’s Southside HQ, this time over the sacking of Transport Minister Sam Tarry and the party’s opposition to the rail strikes. Just this morning, Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association – a union which even nominated Starmer to the leadership two years ago – wrote a scathing attack in House Magazine, claiming:

“As a Labour-affiliated union, our union is ashamed of the actions of the Labour Party leadership and the anti-worker anti-union message it is sending out… Sam’s crime was attending our TSSA picket line at Euston station and doing media interviews in support of striking rail workers – putting the blame rightly on the Tory government. Sam is one of us.”

Unite’s Sharon Graham has also gone on the offensive (again), saying Labour are “becoming more and more irrelevant to ordinary working people”, with GMB’s Gary Smith chiming in to claim it was a “huge own goal” to sack Tarry and “turn a Tory Transport crisis into a Labour story”. Unite have already threatened to bankrupt Labour this year. Starmer’s lucky the party managed to raise more cash than the Tories last quarter. Open warfare with the unions isn’t going to be cheap…

Labour members of Wandsworth council have just voted for an amendment to a motion committing themselves to “maintaining a low council tax“. Sounds good, right? Well, this amendment was to a Conservative opposition motion formalising the commitment Labour made during the council election campaign pledging to “reducing council tax by 1%”.  The non-specific replacement is clearly a softening of the policy. This comes despite the fact it was the key pledge made during the May election, in which Labour won control for the first time in 40 years.

Much of SW1 jumped on the Labour gain of this historic Tory stronghold, dubbed Thatcher’s “favourite council”, as a key victory in the local elections. Though it is now hard to see how it could be anything except a loss for Wandsworth residents. Wandsworth Labour are clearly following Sir Keir’s lead in maintaining campaign pledges…

Sir Keir has finally admitted his 10 leadership pledges, signed on the dotted line just two years ago, have bitten the dust. They’re still available on his website as a relic of times gone by, for the morbidly curious…

Appearing on the Today Programme just now with Nick Robinson, Starmer claimed – before losing signal halfway through his answer – that changing circumstances meant his solemn promise to reheat Corbynism is off the cards. Although in his own defence, he adds he’s at least being “transparent” about it:

“A lot has happened in the last two years. We’ve been through Covid, we have debt on a scale we’ve not seen for a long long time… and when we go into the next election, making choices…

Finally Robinson asked Starmer, “you’re saying there are things you promised when you ran for leader, that because of changed circumstances you are now not promising”. Starmer responded:

“Yes Nick, the financial situation has changed. The debt situation has changed.”

Tories may be interested to see this new defence from Starmer. Back in September last year when they announced the NI rise, he didn’t seem too keen on allowing the government to use the pandemic as an excuse for breaking election promises…

Angie’s just said the quiet part out loud. Appearing as a guest host on LBC this morning – strange, Guido’s sure he can remember Rayner promising to ban MPs’ second jobs – Labour’s deputy leader admitted what everyone already knew: the man who posed the biggest electoral threat to Labour has left the building. Asked by a caller who she fears the most of the five remaining Tory leadership candidates, Rayner said she’d be “happy with any one of them”… because at least they aren’t Boris:

“I’m quite happy with any one of them. Because the one thing, and I kind of could see it… [Boris] had this, like, teflon coating… It’s like a little magic. Where he was able to get through to the public and get through to the places that I actually don’t see any of the five candidates that are standing having at the moment… Boris had so much going for him. He got an 80-seat majority and the country was really behind him… the five that we’ve got now I don’t think have got that…”

On Friday, The Times claimed Starmer now believes “for the first time” he might actually become Prime Minister. Left-wing hacks also share the view, with the likes of Pippa Crerar delighting in the PM’s defenestration – though to be fair to Pippa, leading the way on Partygate does at least permit a level of smugness. Even this morning, Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell admitted in the House Magazine that life had become easier for Labour now that Boris is on the way out:

“Boris in his heyday was a very formidable campaigner who was able to reach parts of the country that other Conservatives haven’t and wouldn’t be able to reach… What’s likely to come next is probably going to give Labour a bigger opportunity to reach back into the so-called ‘Red Wall’…”

Two years to go before an election. Tory MPs should be careful what they wish for…

Labour have confirmed they will table a vote of no confidence in the government later today, with a debate and vote on the motion expected tomorrow. Were the government to lose that vote – they won’t – then a snap general election could be called, although as some have already pointed out, even that isn’t certain: a new Tory leader could be offered as an interim leader who would win a confidence vote and therefore avoid a general election. Not that it will come to that anyway. The Tories will inevitably vote in favour of the government. This is just posturing from Labour…

Sir Keir’s just taken his victory lap after Durham Police announced they’ll take no further action over Beergate. He repeatedly made it clear he wants a general election as soon as possible. Asked by The Sun’s Jack Elsom if Labour are prepared to enter a coalition agreement with the SNP and the LibDems, Starmer gave a clear answer to only half the question: he absolutely will not do a deal… with the SNP.

“There will be no deal going into an election, and no deal coming out of a general election… there is no basis for an alliance with a party that wants to break up the United Kingdom. It’s not just a numbers game, it’s an in principle decision. There is no basis for an alliance in a Keir Starmer government between Labour and the SNP.”

A pretty forthright answer. What did he say about the LibDems? “We want a Labour majority…”