THE civil war in the top leadership of the Labour government erupted in public this week after briefings to the press from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office warned potential challengers to his leadership would create ‘political instability’ and create uncertainty among the financial markets and potentially endanger the relationship with US president Donald Trump.
This outburst of warnings and veiled threats apparently was aimed primarily at Labour health secretary Wes Streeting who has long been accused, behind the closed doors of Downing Street, of being ‘on manoeuvres’ to oust Starmer.
The fact that these briefings took place on the eve of Streeting addressing a conference of NHS Providers on Wednesday morning lends credence to the belief that the health secretary was indeed the target.
Streeting used his speech to trumpet the fact that the Labour government was on track to sack 18,000 NHS workers after getting permission from the Treasury to allow the NHS to cough up the £1 billion needed for redundancy payments.
Far from being intimidated by Starmer’s reported intention to fight to the bitter end anyone daring to challenge his premiership, Streeting brushed it off during the interviews as mere nonsense and ‘juvenile’.
According to reports, Starmer was forced to apologise to Streeting in a telephone call for the ‘hostile’ briefings from Downing Street.
Yesterday morning, it was the turn of Labour energy minister Ed Miliband to do the interview rounds, urging Labour ‘to move on’ after Starmer’s apology.
However, there can be no ‘moving on’ from the crisis ripping Starmer’s government apart.
The crisis is vastly bigger than the issue of whether or not Starmer is the fit person to lead the country or whether Streeting, who makes no secret of his desire to privatise the health service, is a better option to run the Labour Party, on behalf of international finance capitalism.
The main issue today, is that of a Labour government attempting to impose the full weight of the capitalist economic collapse onto the backs of workers and young people.
The first actions of the Starmer regime, following its election in 2024, was the notorious mini-budget of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, which sought to cut the huge national debt by attacking disability allowance.
Starmer was forced into a humiliating U-turn on this open warfare on the disabled, following a massive rebellion from Labour MPs.
It comes as no surprise then that Starmer is looking vulnerable, to say the least, in the run up to Reeves’ Autumn Budget due on 26th November.
In this budget, Reeves is confidently expected to break the last of the Labour Party election manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on workers. The fear stalking Starmer’s administration, is that this could be a ‘make-or-break’ situation for Labour.
The overwhelming majority of workers have already demonstrated their hostility to Starmer over the attacks on the disabled and the continued support for Zionist genocide in Gaza.
This hostility has reverberated throughout Labour MPs who face political annihilation at the hands of workers, who refuse to see their lives, jobs and wages destroyed by a Labour government determined to ‘rescue’ bankrupt British capitalism, by making them pay the cost of the bankers’ and bosses’ crisis.
It is not just Starmer who must go! The entire Labour government must be brought down.
While the Labour government is being torn apart by this crisis, the leadership of the TUC is remaining completely silent and acting as if it has nothing to do with them.
Workers must demand an emergency re-call of the TUC conference to immediately organise the strength of the working class in a general strike to kick out this collapsing Labour government and bring in a Workers Government.
A Workers Government will nationalise the banks and basic industries, placing them under the ownership of the working class. This requires the building up of the WRP and Young Socialists to provide the leadership necessary for the working class to take power and put an end to bankrupt British capitalism with the victory of the British Socialist Revolution!
