How Starmer Told His Cabinet To Stop Beating Themselves Up – Then Cracked The Whip On Rebel MPs

Keir Starmer’s speechwriters experienced mixed emotions at last week’s Cabinet away day.They had prepared a carefully-crafted message for the prime minister to deliver to his senior ministers as he welcomed them to Chequers.But the PM surprised – and impressed – them by not using the words they had prepared for him, choosing instead to make a “freeforming”, 20-minute speech setting out his thoughts on Labour’s first year in power and where he believes his government needs to go next.“It was very good,” said one of those present. “He spoke from the heart about whose side we’re on. You could feel in the room that it went down well.”Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons, told Starmer: “Your speechwriters are great, but it’s better when you speak from the heart.”The PM told the assembled gathering that while Labour had undoubtedly made mistakes since last year’s landslide election win, they had also done things like introducing free school meals, breakfast clubs and 4.5 million NHS appointments.“He said lots of people in Westminster won’t appreciate how those policies make a massive difference to ordinary people across the country,” said one eyewitness.“After a year in government, he said he realised that the Tories get 96% of things wrong and focus on the 4% of things they get right, whereas Labour gets 96% of things right but agonise over the 4% we get wrong.“We have a tendency to beat ourselves up about the things we get wrong, but he said we need to focus on the things we do that are improving the lives of the people who put us here.”Starmer spoke about his own upbringing, about his brother who died on Boxing Day last year and his sister who is a carer.“It makes me feel incredibly privileged to do this job, but I never lose sight of the fact that we are here to make life better for ordinary people,” the PM said.The overall message was that while the first year in office had been necessarily tough, Labour is now entering the next phase of its time in government.“We’ve done a lot and we need to shout about that more, but there’s lots more to do before the next election,” said one No.10 source.“It was about building towards the message that we’ll have at party conference in September. We were elected on a promise of change, we did the tough stuff in the first year and now is the time to set out the positive change people are going to feel over the next four years.”Although Downing Street officials deny the two things were linked, removing the whip from four Labour MPs on Wednesday afternoon also felt like an attempt by Starmer to draw a line under his first year in power and look to the future.Many Labour MPs were stunned by the swift brutality of it, but others were delighted to see perennial rebels like Brian Leishman and Neil Duncan-Jordan made an example of.“There are lots of loyal MPs who were absolutely spitting feathers at the behaviour of some of the members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) , so there was quite a lot of pressure from them for us to do something,” said one insider.Others, however, were baffled by the move, with one Labour source bemoaning the “randomness, the odd timing and the lack of any accompanying strategy” behind the decision.Some point the finger at Claire Reynolds, Downing Street’s political director, who encouraged the government whips to threaten rebel MPs with suspension if they voted against the welfare cuts bill last week.Despite Starmer gutting the legislation of many of its key measures in order to placate the rebels, 47 of them still trooped through the No lobbies.One No.10 insider said of the disciplinary action: “We couldn’t do it during the welfare stuff, we had to wait for the dust to settle on that.“But if you are actively organising against the government then there has to be consequences.”But a Labour source said: “Presumably they internally have been saying ‘we need to take this action, otherwise we look ridiculous at not being able to follow through on the threats we made before the vote’.“So a bad strategy for persuading the PLP ends up with a bad strategy for disciplining the PLP.“If Claire Reynolds is making threats to people and demanding they be sacked to fulfil her threats, I’m not sure any of that is being instigated by [No.10 chief of staff] Morgan McSweeney, Keir or [chief whip] Alan Campbell, even if they’re going along with it.”An already-tumultuous week then saw Diane Abbott lose the Labour whip for a second time after she doubled down on the comments about anti-semitism which led to her original suspension from the party.It was a timely reminder for Starmer that for all his talk about a brighter future, the present has the unfortunate habit of delivering a sharp dose of political reality.As MPs prepare to leave Westminster for the summer next week, the prime minister will hope that his second year in power is better than his first.But all the evidence of the past 12 month suggests he and his cabinet should buckle up for another bumpy ride.Related...Keir Starmer Suspends 4 Labour MPs In Crackdown On Party DisciplineKeir Starmer Has Sparked A Furious Backlash By Suspending 4 Left-Wing MPs - And No.10 Are DelightedRevolt On The Left? 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