Keir Starmer’s year-two reset could not have got off to a worse start after the resignation of his deputy Angela Rayner plunged the government into chaos.
In a bid to try to turn crisis into opportunity, the prime minister has carried out a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle, signalling he intends to adopt a much harder line on key issues such as immigration and welfare. Hailed by some, criticised by others, the shift represents a “great Rightwards gamble”, said The Telegraph.
What did the commentators say?
After the government’s “most disastrous week in office, one thing above all is clear”, said The Sun: “Keir Starmer has a massive credibility problem.”
The PM must “act urgently to stop the rot” in three main areas. First, Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, needs enhanced powers to stop migrants illegally crossing the Channel. Second, the PM must resist the urge to raise taxes in November’s Budget and “instead force through massive cuts to our obscene £300 billion welfare bill”. Lastly, he should scrap the government’s “unachievable, unrealistic and unaffordable” net zero targets.
Immigration is “fast becoming Britain’s most combustible issue”. Only by adopting a “more responsive agenda” will Labour be able “to respond to growing public frustration” and halt the Reform UK surge, said Bloomberg. Starmer needs to “acknowledge legitimate public worries; make a robust economic case for managed levels of legal immigration; and offer credible reforms to secure the border and bolster public services”.
The appointment of Mahmood is “a clear attempt to address these problems, signalling a shift to the Right in both policy and rhetoric”, said The Telegraph. She is on record as criticising Britain’s “maximalist” approach to the European Convention on Human Rights and is believed to support the idea of using disused military barracks to house those waiting for their asylum claims to be processed – the latter being “strikingly similar to Reform’s policy of custom-built detention centres”.
For progressives, though, this lurch to the right on immigration and welfare “isn’t the answer to a haemorrhaging of hope, trust and electoral support”, said The Mirror‘s associate editor Kevin Maguire. Instead, the PM should focus his efforts on “funding a fairer country”. “Security at work, fatter wage packets, a healthy NHS, lifting kids out of poverty” – these are the “prizes that win Labour hearts, minds and, of course, votes”.
What next?
With many Labour MPs already “deeply anxious” about the direction of the reshuffle, No. 10 is “braced for a deputy leadership contest in which candidates publicly criticise Starmer’s first year in government”, said The Guardian.
In a taste of what is to come, one potential contender, Emily Thornberry, said that “domestically, things just don’t seem to be working”. She warned that further “mistakes” from the PM could lead to Labour having to “hand our country to Farage”.
The fate of the workers’ rights bill currently before Parliament will provide a good indication of Labour’s new direction of travel. Overseen and pushed by Rayner, many on the left fear her departure could lead to it being watered down or scrapped altogether under the direction of key Starmer ally Pat McFadden, now in charge at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Justin Madders, who was removed from his post as employment minister in the reshuffle, warned on Sunday that it “would be really, really foolish for the government to row back on key manifesto commitments that are popular with the public and will show what a positive difference a Labour government can make”.
If Labour does change tack on employment rights, “Starmer would sign the government’s death warrant”, said Maguire.
Rightward shift on immigration and welfare not the answer to ‘haemorrhaging of hope, trust and electoral support’
