David Vance SubstackRead More
It’s not been a good week for UK PM Sir Keir Starmer. In fact, it’s been horrific.
First, there was the catastrophic loss of a Labour seat in Caerphilly in Wales. This seat has been held by Labour for 100 years but it is was lost to Plaid Cymru. The Labour share of the vote collapsed to a mere 11%. This is an unprecedented defeat and an utter humiliation for the Starmer. leadership. Yet his response was to try and brush it off as evidence that he had to push through his policies even harder. This is denialism and a sign of a politician detached from reality. That usually precedes a fall.
Then came the news that a convicted migrant sex offender has “accidentally” been released from prison! Epping Forest sex offender, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a 41‑year‑old Ethiopian migrant, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford. This was just weeks after he was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14‑year‑old girl and an adult woman in Epping. This is ANOTHER humiliation for Starmer whose oversight of our prisons is dire. Then again, with David Lammy as Justice Minister, what do you expect?
Finally, and this is most ominous, Lucy Powell has just been elected by the Labour membership as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. The significance issue here is that Starmer SACKED her from the Labour cabinet last month. Now, the membership has restored her to this important position. She beat the Starmer approved candidate Bridget Phillipson. This is more evidence that Starmer is deeply unpopular with his own party member. Powell has been critical of the direction of Labour under Starmer so this is going to prove difficult going forward.
If the opinion polls are right, Labour is going to be crushed at the polls next May when there are elections in Wales and Scotland along with some council elections in England.
That is the moment that Starmer will be removed from Downing Street by his own Party.
