The historic thrashing delivered to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party the May 7 local council elections was worse than anticipated, according to one long-time Labour activist. He said the issue is bigger than Starmer—it represents the presently “brain-dead quality of politics” in the U.K. There are calls from within Labour circles for Starmer to resign, but he says he will fight to stay on, for if he left there would be chaos due to the Iran war!
While the big winner was Nigel Farage, the big losers were the three major parties. Labour had its worst showing in years, while the Tories and Liberal Dems also lost seats (the final count is not yet complete). Starmer can expect at best to retain a caretaker role, the length of which depends on whether Labour can find a placeholder until new elections are held in 2029, or whether a decision is made to move up the national elections.
My sources agreed on two points as to what happened. First, Labour was done in by the Epstein scandal, centered on Starmer’s choice of Epstein pal Mandelson as Ambassador to the U.S. This was viewed as an example of the arrogance of the establishment, which thought it could outlast the stench of the corruption of the oligarchs running the country. The second factor is the economic fallout from inflation and job losses, and the deterioration of the National Health Service, which Starmer never addressed—but neither did candidates from the other parties.
In the background, but rarely discussed, is the further decline of Britain as a world power. Starmer’s decision to assert leadership in Europe (Coalition of the Willing) without the U.S. was not seen as credible by the electorate. And while there is little public discussion of the dangers of war against Russia or Iran, there is an unmistakable nervousness about the future. My sources said that the media coverage of King Charles’s trip to the U.S. may have been meant to be reassuring, but Charles is nearly as unloved as Starmer.
As for the future of Labour, will this be the end of the Blairite globalist neoliberalism of the “Third Way”? An op-ed in The Telegraph holds out little hope for a revival of the Labour Party. It concludes by saying that Starmer put the party into intensive care, one more mistaken judgment from seeing voters place a “Do not resuscitate notice above its bed.”
