The Inevitable Miliband Government Arrives Under Starmer's Watch
Britain is now effectively governed by an Ed Miliband administration, regardless of who technically occupies 10 Downing Street. Even if Sir Keir Starmer manages to cling to the title of Prime Minister for a few more months, the nation will ultimately experience all the policies voters rejected in 2015: substantially higher taxation, more aggressive decarbonisation targets, increased indulgence of Islamist groups, and renewed cosiness with Brussels.
A Prime Minister Controlled by Backbench Ideologues
Every decision made by the beleaguered Prime Minister is now dictated by Labour MPs who astonishingly believe that the highest tax burden in seventy years remains insufficient. These parliamentarians, who imagine themselves to be "fighting austerity," are curiously described by broadcasters as "soft-Left" – though their softness reflects Northern English connotations of being dim or naive rather than moderate.
In reality, these are hardened ideologues who have spent their entire careers within the public or charitable sectors. For them, public spending represents an answer desperately searching for a question – a measure of personal virtue rather than economic necessity.
Starmer's Loss of Control and Subsequent Capitulation
Sir Keir Starmer definitively lost control of his parliamentary party last summer when backbenchers blocked his feeble attempt to merely slow – not cut – the growth in welfare expenditure. The Labour leadership ultimately accelerated increases to sickness benefits and subsequently removed the cap on child benefit payments.
The Labour leader, displaying both theatricality and incompetence, attempted to portray this defeat as virtuous, boasting about his moral mission to eliminate child poverty. This occurred even as he withdrew the whip from seven MPs who supported the benefit increases at a time when he still pretended to care about the national debt.
A Puppet Prime Minister in Name Only
Since that pivotal moment, Starmer has functioned as a puppet for his profligate Left, tethered to the helm of a ship he no longer steers. Last week, the final pretenses were abandoned as Starmer – while retaining the title of captain – was effectively moved from the bridge to the brig.
As Kemi Badenoch highlighted yesterday, Downing Street now operates without a chief of staff, director of communications, and Cabinet Secretary simultaneously – an unprecedented situation in modern governance. Starmer barely maintains the facade of being in charge anymore.
Desperate Concessions to Internal Critics
Desperate to retain his position following the Mandelson debacle, the Prime Minister has offered his internal critics everything they demand: additional spending, increased woke policies, and closer European integration. The profound irony is that these concessions will almost certainly prove inadequate.
Starmer remains in office primarily because nobody particularly wants to assume leadership just before anticipated losses in the Scottish, Welsh, and local elections this May. Unless Labour miraculously improves its standing, Starmer will likely be removed by summer, with his undignified appeasement strategy providing no protection.
The Milibandist Takeover and Its Consequences
The Milibandist majority among Labour backbenchers will eventually tire of ruling through Starmer as their proxy and replace him with one of their own. Meanwhile, significant damage will accumulate as the Prime Minister scrambles to buy off critics with sympathetic receptions to every spending demand and approval of pork-barrel constituency expenditures.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has already practically abandoned her fiscal rules, may formally discard them entirely. Simultaneously, Britain appears poised to adopt various EU policies that Labour explicitly promised to avoid during the election campaign.
Brexit Reversal Through Stealth Alignment
The government seems prepared to agree to dynamic alignment, committing Britain to follow all EU regulations in specific areas unilaterally and unconditionally while surrendering fishing rights. Despite official denials, there will almost certainly be an attempt to join the EU customs union – an arrangement even Switzerland and Norway consider unacceptable.
Customs union membership would mean abandoning all British trade deals without receiving the compensating removal of export checks to the EU. The puzzling question remains: why are Labour MPs agitating for customs union membership rather than single market participation? The only plausible explanation appears to be their preference for the word "union" over "market."
Accelerated Decarbonisation and Constitutional Changes
Meanwhile, the single policy most responsible for Britain's economic decline – aggressive decarbonisation – will accelerate further. Brexit presented an opportunity to escape the EU's most expensive and unnecessary Net Zero targets. Instead, Britain is using its Brexit freedoms to adopt even costlier environmental policies.
During his remaining three or four months, Starmer could inflict substantial damage. Many proposed measures appear designed specifically to constrain future administrations. Renewable energy contracts typically span fifteen to twenty years, making cost reductions far more difficult for subsequent governments.
Locking in Labour Advantages
Constitutional changes range from abolishing hereditary peers – which would strengthen Labour's parliamentary position – to the controversial proposal for votes at sixteen. In every other context, Labour considers sixteen-year-olds children, having supported raising age restrictions for purchasing knives, smoking cigarettes, obtaining tattoos, applying for mortgages, leaving full-time education, and receiving Botox treatments to eighteen.
Yet regarding voting, Labour again identifies an opportunity to lock in electoral advantages beyond the next election. Starmer appears determined to use his remaining months to implement irreversible changes to Britain's governance, potentially locking the nation into policies that promise increased poverty, energy insecurity, diminished global standing, and reduced sovereignty.
A Legacy of Philosophical Vacuum
Should this surprise anyone? As political journalist Tim Shipman revealed in a recent Spectator cover story, senior Labour figures remain perplexed by Starmer's lack of philosophical foundation, coherent governing program, and bizarre fixation on trivialities like meeting dress codes – which has seen Starmer and Attorney General Lord Hermer "decked out in a lot of Paul Smith, jackets with a polo shirt."
This constitutes a legacy of sorts, though future generations will undoubtedly curse his name. Britain now effectively has a Miliband government implementing the very agenda voters rejected nearly a decade ago, with potentially profound consequences for the nation's economy, sovereignty, and constitutional framework.
