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I've won every fight I've been in
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Those were the defiant words of Keir Starmer, but as the walls of Number 10 seem to be closing
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in, many are wondering, is this a fight he can actually win
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Within just 24 hours, the Prime Minister has lost his closest advisers and the support
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of the Scottish Labour leader. The chaos started with a bombshell, the resignation of Morgan McSweeney
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As the Chief of Staff and the architects of Labour's 2024 landslide, McSweeney wasn't
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just an adviser, he built the Starmer project from the ground up. McSweeney took full responsibility for the vetting failure when appointing Peter Mandelson
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as the US ambassador. That appointment was a political time bomb which has now detonated spectacularly
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But the bleeding didn't stop there. Just hours after Starmer tried to rally his staff, his fourth director of communications
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in 18 months, Tim Allen, walks out. When you lose your top strategist and your top messenger in a single day, it's more
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than just a bad news cycle. It's a total breakdown of the core team
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that insists that he's getting on with the job. But who is left to help him do it Well obviously not Labour leader in Scotland On Monday Anasawa took the extraordinary step of calling for the Prime Minister resignation saying that Downing Street has simply made too many mistakes While the Cabinet has since staged a choreographed display of loyalty
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on social media, the cracks are undeniable. Senior ministers such as West Streeting are already
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facing scrutiny over their own links to the Mandelson fallout. And the timing really couldn't
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be worse politically. The Gorton and Denton by-election looms just a few weeks away with
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Reform UK and the Greens potentially threatening to push Labour into third place in a seat
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that was once very much Labour heartlands. This crisis is now a lot bigger than one ambassadorial appointment
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It's about whether the Labour Party believes Starmer still has the authority to lead them through the coming local elections
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He says he won't walk away from his mandate for as long as there is breath in his body
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but sharks could well come circling again. No one really wants to be the face of a painful set of local elections, but once they're out
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of the way, the PM's position could well be under threat again
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So is this the beginning of the end for the Prime Minister, or just a particularly bleak
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moment in his Premiership? Let us know what you think in the comments
