Keir Starmer holds a weakening hand, so the Prime Minister needs to play his remaining cards smartly to have any chance of surviving as odds shorten on the end of his Downing Street tenancy.
A Poker-Face Approach
Adopting a poker-face to stare down Labour rebels and gamble on the enemy within folding requires nerves of steel and political guile that he has rarely displayed in No 10. Gordon Brown, when Prime Minister, skillfully and narrowly trumped a hat-trick of coup attempts, including Cabinet resignations, in 2008, 2009, and 2010. So one has to wonder if the great clunking fist's global finance envoy role includes advice on how to smash upstarts.
The Battle of the Lists
One wise Labour head predicted the battle of the lists before faithfuls produced a rear-guard stay petition of over 100 loyalists, outnumbering almost as many traitors demanding Starmer go. Praetorians adopted Brown's tactics in effectively challenging hesitating Health Secretary Wes Streeting's supporters to put up 81 names or shut up, a wrecking strategy Big Gordie successfully deployed to cower Foreign Secretary David Miliband's fan band into silence.
Intriguingly, Starmerites despatched to big-up their line manager to the media after the Cabinet meeting—Peter Kyle, Steve Reed, Pat McFadden, and Peter Kyle—would likely all be Wesleyites in any future ballot. Hinting that any contest without King of the North Andy Burnham would be illegitimate is delicious hypocrisy from a divide-and-rule camp when Starmer blocked the Greater Manchester Mayor's byelection candidacy.
Options for Survival
Should Starmer's Alamo defences be overwhelmed by hostile forces demanding his head, the PM could take the Tony Blair option by pre-announcing his goodbye for later this year or next to escape immediate execution. The Dignitas departure, death with dignity, would spare Starmer the crushing humiliation of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, trampled by stampeding Tory herds.
Blair put on a brave face, pretending he recognised it was time to move on, yet he was a veteran in post for 10 years, while toddler Starmer not yet two would convince only the criminally gullible that his eviction was mutually agreed. One course of risky action would be a reverse Corbyn, engineering a Parliament Labour Party confidence vote to prove most MPs are with him to head off a formal challenge.
Potential Outcomes
Jeremy Corbyn's critics won their PLP battle but lost the resulting party war, as Comrade Jezza was rejected by MPs then re-elected by members. Starmer might convince MPs to stick with him for now but would almost certainly see him awarded a P45 by bloodied troops on the ground against multiple alternatives. Or wife Lady Vic could tell hubby the game is up, with Kryptonite ratings a time for him to stop posing as Superman and return to a quiet Clark Kent life. Whatever Starmer does, the skids feel under him, and the country is on the verge of a record seventh PM in only 10 years.
