Angela Rayner is already being frozen out, allies fear
To the unsuspecting onlooker, it would appear that Sir Keir Starmer is running a rather slick operation.
But just over a week into the new regime, tensions are bubbling under the surface. Allies of Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, fear she is being “frozen out” and believe she is already being unfairly stripped of responsibilities.
Ms Rayner, directly elected by Labour members as Deputy PM and therefore unsackable, has already been identified as the biggest potential threat to Sir Keir’s authority.
We may as well translate here -
it would appear that Sir Keir Starmer is running a rather slick operation
translates to -
we in the mainstream media are giving Starmer an easy time as we now have plenty of fresh political material to be going on with
The anticipation here is that this benign period may come to an end as the nature of Starmer's not at all slick cabinet comes the the fore. Angela may be ghastly but she's not politically dim if judged by the mephitic standards of modern politics. She may well provide lashings of new media material.
6 comments:
Angela Rayner is being 'de-powered' perhaps because she is seen as the biggest current threat to lovable Sir Keir Starmer. It is how Starmer and his henchpeople already groomed the Labour Party to remove activists.
But I predict that other challenges will shortly emerge from outside the party - there are still long running pay disputes whose resolution will be difficult when there is 'no money'.
"directly elected by Labour members as Deputy PM" Nope, she was elected as Deputy Leader. Plain different thing.
DJ - yes, he has major external challenges which are not obviously resolvable without leaving an impression of weakness. It always seemed likely that Starmer would find the role PM to be a poisoned chalice.
dearieme - that mistake seems to have propagated itself quite widely. Maybe Angela encourages it too.
I understand the Ginger Growler is somewhat of a fan of Corbyn. If she is being "frozen out", perhaps it's the fear that the Labour Party will turn slightly to the left of Joseph Stalin, if it's not becoming that already?
Penseivat
Sir Keir definitely needed her during the election, to prove to the white working class still voting Labour for reasons of tradition and inertia that there are people like them still in power. But what use is she after they get in? He's been enobling experts like Valance, so what can she offer in terms of management and administration that any uneducated single mum can't?
The same applies to Lammy, of course. An appealing skin-tone, but otherwise we're in chocolate teapot territory. And I wouldn't be surprised if Miliband was there to prevent further haemorrhaging of the once-solid Jewish vote.
Empty promises and empty people deployed to gain power. As we saw towards the end of last week, the wheels seem to be coming off already.
Penseivat - yes, a number of people think Starmer is more extreme than Corbyn and there are signs of it. Apparently he intends to rely on what would effectively be a small politburo.
Sam - and those token people aren't politically dim enough to be unaware of why they are there. Schisms could build very early.
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