Keir Starmer survived as Labour prime minister by the skin of his teeth on Monday night as his cabinet rallied round him, inundating Labour MPs with messages of support.
The underlying message sent out to their MPs was simply that this was not the time to kick Starmer out, and that there was no credible alternative willing to take on the task of leading a disintegrating Labour government heading over the abyss into political oblivion.
The frantic lobbying of Labour MPs was followed by a meeting on Monday evening of backbenchers addressed by Starmer who insisted he had ‘won every fight I’ve ever been in.’
He omitted to mention the number of U-turns forced on him and his chancellor Rachel Reeves over attacks on the benefits for pensioners and the disabled.
Nor did he mention the humiliating climbdown forced on him over the treacherous betrayal of the Labour Party election pledge to scrap the Tory two-child benefit cap.
These defeats from rebellious Labour MPs, driven by the hatred of the working class towards a Starmer government that had revealed itself as intending to carry on with Tory austerity measures to inflict the economic collapse of British capitalism on workers’ backs, were overlooked by a prime minister fighting for political survival.
Instead, he boasted about changing the Labour Party.
The changes he introduced were dictated and overseen by his chief advisor Morgan McSweeney, who in turn was led by the disgraced former US ambassador Peter Mandelson.
Central to this right-wing takeover of the Labour Party, was the hounding out of any member suspected of harbouring socialist principles, with McSweeney accused of directly overseeing the vetting of potential Labour candidates in the General Election.
Now all the plotting and secret deals amongst the so-called ruling elite have been shattered by the refusal of the working class to bow down and accept Starmer’s demand that it sacrifices workers’ lives, jobs and all the gains of the Welfare State to keep British capitalism from crashing into bankruptcy.
The current crisis may have erupted over the issue of the proven ties between Mandelson and the paedophile, billionaire investor Jeffrey Epstein, along with the involvement of McSweeney in his appointment as US ambassador, but it is grounded in the explosive class struggle between the working class and the capitalist class.
An article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph highlighted the fact that the main supporters of Starmer are not to be found amongst workers, youth or amongst Labour MPs but are the hedge funds and international financiers.
The article, headed ‘Only the bond markets still believe in Starmer’, notes that after the resignation of McSweeney the interest rates on government bonds – sold on the international markets to finance government spending – jumped, pushing up the cost of financing the national debt of over £3 trillion.
The article quotes one veteran broker saying: ‘The only thing saving Keir Starmer right now is the bond market. The market is possibly his best friend.’
The world capitalist financial markets may be Starmer’s ‘best friend’ at the moment but the reality is that his political survival owes mainly to the fear of Labour MPs about the consequences of kicking him out.
This fear is also apparent in the complete silence of the TUC leadership over the crisis engulfing the Labour government.
The TUC has given Starmer its unswerving support, offering only mild criticism of his austerity attacks on benefits, the NHS and his complete subservience to the bosses and bankers.
The TUC has worked overtime in an attempt to keep the working class from tearing the Starmer government apart.
The time is now to put an end to this support by demanding an immediate emergency Congress of the TUC to call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Labour government, replacing it with a workers government and socialism.
Leaders who refuse to fight must be sacked and replaced with a new leadership prepared to lead the working class to take power and put an end to bankrupt capitalism.
Join the WRP and Young Socialists to provide the leadership required for the victory of the British Socialist Revolution.
There is no time to lose.