Labour contenders jockey for position
They say you should never waste a good crisis. And that certainly seems to be the mantra of certain senior figures within the Labour party, given their prominence in recent days. First, there was Wes Streeting out on the Sunday airwaves. Asked about the 'Death, death to the IDF' chant at Glastonbury, the Health Secretary told Victoria Derbyshire:
I'd also say to the Israeli embassy, get your own house in order. What happened in the West Bank this week by Israeli settler terrorists needs to not only be condemned, it needs to be acted upon. And Israel cannot continue to look the other way while its own people are carrying out unwanton acts of terrorism and violence. They wouldn't tolerate it, rightly, against their own citizens; their citizens are doing it to Palestinians and it's got to stop.
He used the same phrase 'get your own house in order' on Sky too. Exactly the sort of thing that an ambitious minister expecting a leadership contest might say…
Then there was Andy Burnham, the Mayor of the Great Manchester. You can always tell when Keir Starmer is in trouble by how much Burnham pops up on telly. He is the SAS of the Labour party, always on standby. So it is no surprise then that Burnham has decreed – shocked – that the proposed concessions on the Welfare Bill tomorrow do not go far enough. Speaking at an event at Glastonbury (where else?), he said:
What's been announced is half a U-turn, a 50 per cent U-turn. In my view I'd still hope MPs vote against the whole bill when it comes before parliament… [Labour MPs] face the prospect, if they accept this package, someone could come to their surgery in two years saying 'Why did you vote to make me £6,000 worse off than someone exactly the same, but who was protected because they were an existing claimant'?… I hope they think carefully before the vote, because the vote will create that unfairness and divide in disabled people.
Never a good sign for any PM when the young contenders start circling publicly. Still, maybe another moody long form interview will fix it for Sir Keir eh?
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