The ‘honourable’ Angela Rayner, the self-appointed queen of the Labour left was forced into a dishonourable discharge when evidence surfaced showing that she had evaded paying tax in a real estate deal. When it became evident that tax had been avoided, she quickly turned the story to blame her ‘tax advisers’ who she claimed had given her the said advice. No sooner had this story started doing the rounds the inevitable happened, the said tax advisers came out with their own position statement. In effect they made it clear that at no point did they ever give any such tax advice. They even stated that everything they did was based totally on the information provided by their client – namely Rayner.
That was the end of Queen Rayner. I am sure even her ‘loyal’ supporter, the Prime Minister, must have said enough is enough. The media narrative was totally out of control. She had no choice but to resign not just as the deputy PM, but also as the deputy leader of the Labour Party. Her exit with full dishonour was now complete.
This pushed the Prime Minister to conduct a wholesale cabinet reshuffle. Frankly he had no choice because literally every front bencher was failing to deliver. The only problem he faced was that he does not have that instinct of reading people, of reading the public or knowing who to select based on their competence. His hands are tied since many of those he would wish to have around him are not exactly competent. Their only ability is to conduct protest politics, running a government is way beyond their capacity.
Looking at the changes he has made, one is left wondering if he has not merely jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire.
The following are some of the new appointees:
David Lammy: Was Foreign Secretary, now Justice Secretary
and Deputy PM.
Steve Reed: Was Environment Secretary, now Housing, Communities
and Local Government Secretary.
Shabana Mahmood:Was Justice Secretary, now Home Secretary.
Yvette Cooper: Was Home Secretary, now Foreign Secretary.
Sir Alan Campbell: Was Chief Whip, now Leader of the Commons.
Interestingly, Rachel Reeves stays in her post. Is this the prime minister showing confidence in his chancellor? Or maybe he needs someone to take the blame when the economy tanks, as it will.
Another interesting appointment is of course Shabana Mahmood as our Home Secretary. I say interesting because how ironic that the person who goes on protest marches is now the HS who must enforce the law against miscreants on such marches. Ironic also because she signed an EDM in 2013 that demanded that crimes under the made-up definition of Islamophobia be recorded as such by the police (do note that so far there is NO agreed definition of Islamophobia – yet she was signing an EDM demanding it!). She is of Pakistani heritage, and as such she has openly declared her position to align with that of Pakistan in respect of Kashmir. Indeed, she calls the region ‘Indian Occupied Kashmir’. This is a clear declaration of her anti-India credentials. In 2019 she even participated in a protest outside the Indian High Commission in London against the abrogation of Article 370, calling it 'a betrayal of the people of Kashmir'.
Yet another interesting appointment is that of Steve Reed who is now the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary. It’s interesting because in July of 2021, he wrote a letter to leaders of Labour Councils urging that they adopt the APPG definition of Islamophobia. In his new role he is now in charge of the consultation process currently taking place on Islamophobia. The way the definition is currently formulated would almost certainly put Sikhs behind bars for telling the truth about how Islamic invaders tortured and killed the Gurus and their families. It would put Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and others behind bars for stating the truth that Islam was spread by the sword.
You will not be too surprised to learn that many Labour MPs have already given their full support towards this corrupt definition of Islamophobia. Is it any wonder that Labour had for so long orchestrated a campaign to stop any inquiry into the Pakistani grooming gang’s fiasco! This week Jess Phillips gave the game away when she said, “I would be lying if I said that over the years, I have not met girls who talked to me about how police were part of the perpetration, not just the cover-up”. To put this in some context, she is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls. The woman in charge of protecting vulnerable women turned a blind eye to white girls being raped and abused by men of Pakistani heritage and it seems, some cops.
In conclusion, we now have yet another reset by Starmer in his attempt to save face with the electorate. All he has done is re-group his team with new titles, but the basic underlying rot remains. In the week when Nigel Farage conquered the national narrative at the Reform Party conference, is it any wonder that they are flying so high in the polls.
The end of Starmer is nigh. And with that, that of Labour as a government. What comes next, well folks that will be interesting.