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All right, last time I did a video in
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our studio, I was just about to go on
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holiday. And now I'm back from holiday
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and I'm struggling with jet lag at the
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moment. And to add to my confusion and
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general sense of bewilderment, I've been
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trying to make sense of the latest Kier
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Starmer chaos. I think it's best to go
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back to the election campaign of 2024
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the Labour Party under Kier Starmer was
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poised for power, sweeping away 14 years
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of Tory rule, five prime ministers. And
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built his pitch for power on a very
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simple premise that he would be better
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at government than the last lot. That he
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was a man of sincerity and ethics and
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rules and process. And really that was,
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if you strip away whatever else they
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were trying to say during the election
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campaign, that is pretty much what it
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came down to because actually policy
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offering was pretty thin. And so he
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entered Downing Street with this huge
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But without much more than just a sense
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of bringing competence back to
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government. And there were high
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expectations around this and a lot of
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people, I confess I wasn't one of them,
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were were quite excited or at least
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confident that we were now going to have
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a period of calm politics and that the
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grown-ups were back in the room. You
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remember all of that nonsense, as it
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turns out. We now get to a point where
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we know that the growth agenda is really
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just something which is spoken of in
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warm words that any serious attempt to
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reform the welfare bill has been parked
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in favor of party unity. And so all
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Starmer really had left was his sense
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that he is a man of probity and ethics
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and sound judgment. And all of those
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things have been shattered by the farce
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and absurdity and alarming revelations
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coming from the Peter Mandelson scandal.
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This is a scandal for Kier Starmer. It's
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a scandal in its own right if you
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consider the error of judgment in
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appointing Peter Mandelson. And now what
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we see around the processes, or rather
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concerning the appointment itself. But
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it's particularly damaging to Starmer
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because it does, as I say, just shatter
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those last remaining ideas that in Kier
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Starmer we have, if nothing else, a man
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of sound judgment, moral integrity, and
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a commitment to the rules and process.
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So all of these things have been thrown
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out the window along with a number of
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permanent secretaries who he's disagreed
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with or fallen out with. People he's
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The revelations point to
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at best a kind of disinterested lack of
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curiosity and at worst a complete kind
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of willful ignorance around some very,
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very serious and pressing concerns that
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were raised time and again around the
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appointment of Peter Mandelson. The
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question is, is it a scandal that's
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going to bring him down? Will he exit
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Downing Street off the back of this
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Principally for the reasons that the
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Labour Party doesn't seem to have the
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appetite to do that at the moment and
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there's very little coherence around who
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would follow Kier Starmer from the
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Labour benches and and to what end. So
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it's just going to drift. He's just
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with his credibility undermined
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with the sense of his moral
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tarnished, to put it mildly. I suspect
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that Kier Starmer will not see out the
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full term of his of his government.
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What actually does for him in the end,
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who knows? Maybe the local elections,
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maybe simply the fact that a rival or an
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opponent gets their show together. But
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at the moment it is deeply damaging and
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there's no way to sugarcoat it. There
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will be many more revelations because
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we've got more disclosures of documents
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coming. There's political pressure.
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Political opposition leaders are of
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course now calling for him to resign.
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And so it will rumble on and will drag
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on in this mess with fewer and fewer
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members of Starmer's cabinet now even
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willing to defend him on TV. As I say, I
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think it just puts to bed
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the the myth that in Starmer we had a
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man of, if nothing else, competence and
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respect for process and procedure and
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rules. Because all of these things have
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Whether that was as a result of his
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naivety or his ignorance or indeed just
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of an arrogance. But I suspect it's all
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related to the underlying fact that he
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was ill-prepared for government and that
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he didn't have a coherent plan. And so
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all these things just swirl around him
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and he just tries to bat them away. But
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one of these days, I suspect, one of
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these mistakes is going to knock him
