How Keir Starmer's 'Growth And Boats' Reshuffle Could Create Even More Problems For The PM

Keir Starmer has relaunched his government yet again.When the dust settled on Keir Starmer’s reshuffle, it looked very much like the aftermath of a game of musical chairs.Although he made a raft of changes, the prime minister will still see largely the same faces sitting around the table when the cabinet gathers in 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning.Emma Reynolds and Douglas Alexander will be the only newbies, a clear sign that Starmer’s shake-up was a classic case of weakness dressed up as strength.Nevertheless, the government’s two main priorities are now clear: grow the economy and, to borrow Rishi Sunak’s old slogan, stop the boats.Pat McFadden, the PM’s trusted ally, will take on the first task at the Department of Work and Pensions, with a clear instruction to push through tough welfare reforms where his predecessor, Liz Kendall, failed.Meanwhile, Shabana Mahmood has been told to do whatever it takes to cut illegal immigration and end the seemingly never-ending stream of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.Both ministers come from Labour’s right, and will relish the inevitable battles they will have with the party’s left-wing, fights in which they will be cheered on by Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.But there is a clear danger that by doing so, Labour turns off even more of the left-of-centre voters who helped put Starmer in No.10 in the first place.The recent emergence of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party of the left, and Zack Polanski’s election this week as the new Green Party leader, means those voters have other options.Keiran Pedley of pollsters Ipsos told HuffPost UK: “More than a third of Labour voters from 2024 would consider voting Green in the future. That doesn’t mean they all will, but it shows a vulnerability on Labour’s left flank. “A Polanski-led Greens could win over some of these voters with a more full-throated progressive agenda.“However, the big question is how they work with the new Corbyn-Sultana left party as they are competing for similar voters on similar issues.“Our polling suggests more than three in ten Brits overall would consider voting for a Green/Left alliance. Whether one is coming remains to be seen.”One senior Labour figure predicted that the Greens will form an electoral pact with Corbyn’s party in an attempt to consolidate the left-wing vote.“That’s dangerous for us but also for the Greens,” he said.The most recent YouGov poll put Labour on just 20%, well down on the 34% the party achieved at last year’s general election.Labour’s biggest problem, according to Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, is that the party is currently losing votes in all directions.He said: “If Labour are squeezed to the left by the Greens and Corbyn’s new party, and squeezed to the right by Reform, squeezed in the middle by the Lib Dems, not to mention the Scottish and Welsh squeezes put on by the SNP and Plaid Cymru, where Labour gets its voters back from becomes harder to determine.“It can recover, but it will only be led by an economic recovery and a sense that Labour is listening. Mixed messages, exacerbated by threats from all sides of the political spectrum, will only serve to entrench what voters already perceive about Labour: no-one knows what they stand for.”The main aim of Starmer’s reshuffle was to convince voters that the government is focused on their priorities and finally has the right people in place to address their concerns.But by so overtly trying to pursue policies designed to appeal to Reform voters, the PM risks further turning off many of the voters who helped put him into Downing Street in the first place.Related...Exclusive: Green Party Frontrunner Zack Polanski On Trying To Make It From Outside 'Dull' WestminsterRevolt On The Left? Starmer's Strategy In Question As Support Grows For Lib Dems And Greens

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