"When he does go, what will the political death certificate give as the true cause of Keir Starmer's demise? It won't be the Peter Mandelson scandal, the policy U-turns or the bleak nights at provincial counting centres. All these are symptoms, not the disease. No, what is turning the guy elected just 19 months ago into an ex-prime minister is the slow realisation among ministers, colleagues and voters of one essential truth about the man: there is less to him than meets the eye."
"They could have saved themselves the bother and simply defined it as shrinking ambitions, attainments, electoral base. It's not a philosophy but a business model, and for years it was taken as a profitable one even if some of us warned of the dangers long ago. Now it is understood as leading only to bankruptcy. When Mandelson texted his Westminster apprentice Wes Streeting last March that the government problems do not stem from comms, he was spot on."
Keir Starmer's political collapse stems from a perception of hollowness rather than isolated scandals or communication failures. Promises routinely shrink or disappear: a green new deal is jettisoned, an Employment Rights Act is diluted, and a manifesto pledge to end leasehold laws acquires caveats. Claimed achievements appear modest or attributed to others, such as actions taken by predecessors or forced by backbenchers. Attempts to define Starmerism find a cautious, transactional business model rather than a coherent philosophy. That model initially seemed electorally viable but now reads as shrinking ambitions, attainments and electoral base, leading to political bankruptcy.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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