Having gained power by not being the Conservatives, Labour is becoming an iteration of the Conservatives at their chaotic worst. The donations scandal, infighting at the heart of power and the resignations of Rosie Duffield and Sue Gray are signs of a systemic fragility. History is repeating itself at a vertiginous pace. For all Labour’s mountainous majority, the Starmer regime is beginning to look like an interregnum in British politics.
Defined in the public mind by high-minded moralising, the government is acutely vulnerable to further scandals. Duffield’s departure will be followed by splits from the left. Any misstep in the Budget and there could be a Truss-like financial storm. Replacing Gray by the superior strategic intelligence of Morgan McSweeney will not stop the rot while a politically vacuous mix of liberal legalism and Treasury economics remains Labour’s project. No one in government knows what Starmer wants it to do, because the Prime Minister seems not to know himself.
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