On Monday evening, just ten days after a historic defeat to Plaid Cymru in the Caerphilly by-election, Keir Starmer finally faced his backbenchers. It was the Prime Minister’s turn to speak at the weekly gathering of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and was his first opportunity to rally the troops after a painful loss.
Ahead of the meeting, the mood among MPs was flat and uninspired. One insider told the New Statesman that serious discussions have begun over the growing popularity of Zack Polanski’s Greens sparked by a recent poll which had them overtaking Labour entirely (on 17 per cent to Labour’s 16 per cent).
While some MPs are in denial about the seriousness of the party’s predicament, others have turned to gallows humour. One MP said they were “excited” about that evening’s meeting as it meant the parliamentary gym would be quieter. Another sarcastically described the meeting as a “triumph” more than seven hours before Starmer started speaking. “He will be boring, people will pretend it was fine, we will keep sleepwalking to oblivion. Same as always,” another MP quipped.
But many Labour MPs have found recent knocks to the party deeply concerning. And this is not limited to performance. Some in the party remain extremely frustrated over the government’s handling of revelations around the nature of the former US ambassador Peter Mandelson’s friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. One MP pointed out that while Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has been stripped of his royal titles by the King, Mandelson remains a member of the House of Lords. Over the weekend, Starmer came under pressure from a collection of Labour MPs to strip Mandelson of his peerage.
Others have pointed out the double standards in the government’s handling of this crisis and its previous treatment of rebel MPs. Cat Eccles, the MP for Stourbridge, reportedly called for suspended colleagues (Rachael Maskell, Brian Leishman, Neil Duncan Jordan and Chris Hinchliff) to be reinstated. She was met with silence. (But as the New Statesman has previously reported, a recent cooling of tensions between the four remaining rebels could see them soon reinstated.) Emily Thornberry – fresh from grilling senior civil servants over the details of Mandelson’s appointment in her role as chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee – reportedly called for a wealth tax.
Starmer used the meeting to prime his party ahead of the budget, which is now just only three weeks away. In his address (described by one MP as a “standard Keir speech”) the PM told gathered MPs that Rachel Reeves’ big moment on 26 November will be a “Labour budget built on Labour values”, echoing a characterisation used by the Chancellor in her conference speech. Starmer added that it will “protect public services like the NHS”, will “reduce our national debt and improve the cost of living”. He (typically) blamed “Tory austerity”, Brexit and the pandemic for the UK’s economic outlook and accused the Conservatives and Reform of wanting a return to the same austerity.
Taking aim at Nigel Farage, who laid out his party’s economic plans on Monday morning, Starmer said: “Rather than taking the hard and serious decisions needed to renew this country, Reform’s massive spending cuts will mean cuts to the NHS which Farage wants to privatise.” He accused the Reform leader of siding with billionaires. “It’s clear where his priorities lie,” he said.
None of this is likely to have assuaged Labour MPs concerns, or elevated the low mood percolating through the PLP. In fact, many have begun to grow impatient with the government. One MP said the atmosphere among those gathered to hear the PM was “flat”; two others described it as “boring”. Another told the New Statesman, “The planted questions aren’t even disguised anymore,” But there was frustration too, that this fleeting glimpse of the PM’s precious time was put to ill use. “Too many colleagues who despite spending a lifetime at conferences and panels have forgotten how annoying it is to give speeches rather than ask questions,” one said.
One area Starmer was properly scrutinised on was child poverty. The government have long been hinting that the removal of the two-child benefit cap may be on the cards in November’s budget. But no concrete announcement has been forthcoming. On Monday morning almost a quarter of the party signed a petition calling on the Chancellor to impose a gambling tax to fund lifting the cap. Starmer was reportedly asked four questions on child poverty during the meeting and while the government’s upcoming plans remain unclear, one MP described the whole exchange as the most “interesting” part of the session.
Starmer’s address this evening’s meeting is unlikely to be the rallying call the party needed ten days after a painful and damaging defeat. And privately, many MPs are losing faith. The budget is now just three short weeks away. That the PM is presiding over a pervading atmosphere of frustration and boredom among the PLP less than a month out from such a consequential moment for his premiership certainly does not bode well.
[Further reading: Arrogance is the Labour Party’s fatal flaw]
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