Starmer 'Comes Out Fighting' to Save His Job
For the Byline Podcast, veteran Labour peer Lord McCabe gives Adrian Goldberg a first-hand account of PM's crucial meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party
“It was the exact opposite of what some people were predicting” says veteran peer Lord Steve McCabe, who squeezed into a packed Commons’ Committee Room last night to hear Sir Keir Starmer address fellow members of the Parliamentary Labour Party, in what was widely previewed as a last gasp effort to save his Premiership.
McCabe – who served as a Birmingham MP until 2024 – told the Byline Podcast that the media seemed to be expecting a “hanging party” for the beleaguered PM, who had lost two senior advisors in the space of 24 hours and was facing calls to quit from the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Instead, “he was cheered to the rafters from the moment the door opened. It was pretty damned obvious that all these calls that ‘he’s got to go’ are confined to a relatively small number of people, and I think they’re being more than amplified in certain sections of the media.
“He walked into an extremely receptive audience. For someone not really regarded as a brilliant public speaker, I thought he delivered a pretty spot-on performance. He ticked all the necessary boxes. He was contrite and very apologetic… he took responsibility for the things that have happened… but he came out fighting and he made it pretty clear that his view was that the Labour Party had been elected to change things for ordinary people, to try and make their lives better.”
The crisis engulfing the PM was triggered by fresh revelations about Peter Mandelson, appointed by Starmer as US ambassador in December 2024. Mandelson was already known to have maintained a friendship with US financier Jeffrey Epstein even after his conviction for sexual offences in 2008, but documents released last week suggested that he had also passed him potentially valuable information gleaned during his time in government. The Metropolitan Police are currently investigating whether there are any grounds for prosecution, but McCabe insists that, in any event, this was information which Starmer was unaware of at the time of Mandelson’s Washington posting.
“Yes, there may have been lots of iffy issues, but people mostly believed that Mandelson was genuinely faithful to the Labour Party, to the Labour Government and to his country. It’s been the subsequent revelations, not only about some of his personal behaviour, but his avaricious nature that has shocked people as much as the association with the things that Epstein did.”
McCabe also points out that many in the media who are now questioning Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador were applauding it at the time, not least when he helped the UK secure a preferential tariff deal from the US. During his nine-month tenure, he also seemed to have a positive personal relationship with President Trump at a moment of wildly vacillating global politics, helping to preserve the ‘special relationship’.
One of the most serious consequences of the Epstein/Mandelson affair for Starmer was the departure of his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney, who has guided him for eight years and took credit for masterminding Labour’s 2024 election landslide.
McCabe said: “I think Morgan McSweeney is a huge loss, and there’s no point pretending otherwise about that. What was interesting [last night] was the passion with which Keir addressed his reasons for coming into politics, his reason for becoming Prime Minister. He talked about family, friends, people he met, why we needed to rebuild our public services, why people had to get a better deal and feel that the country was one where everyone had an entitlement to achieve what they are capable of, irrespective of your circumstances.
“It was very classic Labour positioning in terms of the things that most of us came into the party for and I was struck by the passion with which he addressed it – and the way he contrasted it with Reform and all the things he fears Reform stand for and represent.”
McCabe acknowledged that Starmer’s administration has made “a few blunders”, including perhaps leaning too far towards Reform’s agenda on immigration (a key theme for McSweeney) but he insisted that this is a major issue for voters and can’t be ignored. Likewise on benefits, he feels that Labour – which u-turned on the two-child benefit cap – can make a compelling case to the country.
“I’m not sure that the instincts on welfare are wrong. I think our ability to tell a cogent story about welfare is what’s really problematic. Why is it that we’ve got such poor employment levels post-Covid compared to other European countries? Why is it that we can’t get enough people into the right jobs and enough young people into work full stop? Had that been the centrepiece of our welfare reasoning, which is a very Labour issue, I think we would have got a much better reception. And that’s about the kind of inexperience across the Government that we have suffered from.”
Whether that messaging will improve or deteriorate now that McSweeney has left Downing Street remains to be seen; and serious questions about both Starmer’s personal judgement and his political instincts are unlikely to disappear. For now, though, he lacks credible rivals. Apart from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham – who was recently blocked from standing as an MP and therefore becoming a challenger – there appears to be little appetite among the Labour ranks for a leadership challenge.
“I mean, there has been an incredible sense of difficulty and chaos around Number 10 for the last few days, and not surprisingly, certain sections of the media have been on that constantly.” McCabe observed.
“But I think, to be honest, we may have got it out of proportion. When you’ve had five Prime Ministers in the course of a couple of Parliaments, maybe everyone’s got a wee bit too into that and beginning to think it’s normal. I’m not saying the Prime Minister’s situation wasn’t and isn’t serious; and I don’t think everything is suddenly okay because of a PLP meeting. But I think the amount of risk that he is at may have been exaggerated.”
Listen to full episode of the podcast here with Adrian, Steve McCabe and Waltham Forest Labour councillor Sebastian Salek
What about, participating in genocide and buying new nuclear weapons, whilst not explaining what he did with the last ones? He has spent a vast amount on weapons and surveillance equipment. What about the lie, that he cares about public services. Wheres the evidence? He refuses to nationalise water, whilst the sewerage kills sea life and rivers and is pumped into these hundreds of times. These scoundrels need to be punished. The profits of these companies need putting in to the infrastructure improvements desperately overdue because of no regulations is the holy grail. He is busy destroying the NHS with even more privatisation and with more and more business carried out on NHS premises. It is completely unacceptable. Labour are destroyed, I hope. Im a ex member that has joined and left the Labour Party three times at least. Until we get a really good government this country will break out in a civil war sparked off by race riots. We need urgently to replace this living Party that is committing genocide. I hope the Labour and Conservatives are over and we know that roughly a quarter of the adult population are racist.
I can't 'like' this piece Im afraid. Too many massive things ignored.
with a left wing government with radical ideas. Nothing less will cut the mustard.