BELEAGUERED Labour prime minister Keir Starmer is chairing an emergency meeting of the COBRA committee today, where he will warn that the impact on the weak UK economy of the failed imperialist war against Iran could continue ‘for some time’.
Yesterday, speaking at the annual conference of the Usdaw trade union, Starmer said he’d called today’s COBRA meeting, which includes representatives from the Bank of England, ‘so you can be sure we will stand by working people in this crisis.’
Starmer told the Usdaw conference: ‘I have to level with you about Iran. The truth is the economic consequences could still be with us for some time.’
The working class do not need Starmer ‘levelling’ with them about the fact that the illegal US-Israeli war to crush Iran is driving the world economy into a global recession.
The working class are also aware that, for all his newfound honesty about the catastrophic effects of the crisis on bankrupt British capitalism, Starmer’s claim that he will ‘stand by working people’ is the hollow cry of a politician desperate to save his political skin.
Meanwhile, the crisis engulfing Starmer from his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the USA, deepened over the weekend following accusations that he breached the ministerial code after failing to declare a visit to the Washington offices of Palantir, the giant US data analytics company and defence contractor.
At this meeting in February 2025, Starmer was accompanied by recently-appointed ambassador Mandelson, whose lobbying company Global Counsel worked for Palantir.
Global Counsel has since been wound up.
No notes were made of that meeting, and in December 2025 Palantir was awarded a £241 million contract with the Ministry of Defence.
Palantir already has a lucrative contract with the NHS worth £330 million giving the US company access to the health data of 67 million Britons.
Palantir also has extensive contracts to provide software used by Donald Trump’s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military.
On Sunday, the Telegraph newspaper wrote that ‘Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of breaking the ministerial code by failing to declare a meeting with a client of Lord Mandelson’s lobbying firm’.
Responding to this accusation, Starmer’s office insisted that the visit was ‘not a formal meeting’ and therefore didn’t need to be declared.
The accusations of breaching ministerial code of conduct is just the latest episode in a crisis engulfing not just his leadership but the entire Labour government.
While Starmer’s increasingly dwindling band of supporters continue to insist that he is entirely innocent of misleading parliament over Mandelson’s appointment, the bourgeois press is reporting that Labour MPs from across rival factions have begun circulating informal proposals for an ‘orderly transition’ of power.
One Labour MP told the Guardian paper there was now a near-universal concern across the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) saying: ‘We need an orderly transition’ adding: ‘Most people think it’s over for Starmer.’
The working class certainly think it’s all over for Starmer and will never be convinced by his claims of ‘standing with working people’.
Today, the Labour Party places the interests of the capitalist class of bosses and bankers far above the interests of the working class and youth.
The issue is not allowing the Labour government to carry out an orderly transition to replace Starmer with another right-wing reformist but to bring it down.
The working class has the power, and the time is now for workers to force the TUC to act by immediately calling an emergency conference to organise the full strength of the working class in a general strike to kick out the Starmer government and bring in a real workers government and socialism.
TUC leaders who refuse to lead this fight must be sacked and replaced with a new leadership prepared to mobilise the working class and take power replacing bankrupt British capitalism with a socialist planned economy.
Join the WRP and Young Socialists to build up the revolutionary party required to lead the British socialist revolution to victory.
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