It's two months ago since we last looked at the jockeying for position going on in the Cabinet. At that time we cast our eyes over Reeves (nobody's idea of the next leader, then or now); Streeting (obviously positioning himself actively); Lammy (radiating ambition); and Rayner (also ambitious but actually a joke). For completeness, we mentioned Khan (permanently on the lookout for the Main Chance); Miliband (radiating competence); and Mandelson (devious and unpredictable as ever).
How do things look now? The Grauniad has a telling, tearful piece, avowedly briefed by the wimmin: and it's worth quoting a couple of chunks.
... a female minister spoke directly to the prime minister to complain about the leaks and briefings she saw directed against other women ... including Bridget Phillipson, Liz Kendall, and Yvette Cooper .,. “Cabinet really no longer feels like a safe space for genuine debate,” one minister said ... after weeks of tension felt by some women in the cabinet... Almost a dozen female Labour MPs who spoke to the Guardian said they were unnerved at how female cabinet ministers appeared to be getting the brunt of the blame for issues in government – though there is less sympathy for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, because of anger over the Treasury’s handling of spending cuts and welfare. Among some of the new intake of MPs, there is a strong feeling that any ultimate successor to Starmer should be a woman – and a resentment of what they see as a campaign to anoint Wes Streeting.
Hahah! More popcorn supplies, please. It goes on:
At the moment [Streeting] has no obvious female rival as the heir apparent. Senior cabinet ministers who did not want to see Streeting win had previously coalesced around Reeves, but her unpopular decisions as chancellor have meant that is no longer the case. Other ministers would back Rayner, but she would face a brutal press onslaught. Among Labour members there is no doubt, however. Rayner is streets ahead of her rivals in terms of popularity with the grassroots ... There is only one cabinet minister ahead of her, who is probably the least likely of anyone around the table to have another shot at the top job – Ed Miliband.
This is not intelligent commentary. First, selecting the next leader when there's no vacancy is well-known to be an absolute mug's game. Genuine, nailed-on heirs-apparent are few and far between in British politics (in the past century or more, only Anthony Eden and Gordon Brown).
Second, Miliband is not at all the least likely to have another shot. In countries like France and Italy he would be the number one contender in everyone's books: competent (at politics, that is), confident, popular, experienced, sure-footed, intelligent, and comfortably dynamic enough. And he has the green-left eating out of his hand - potentially deemed a vital constituency when the Green Party is snapping around Labour's heels in such politically volatile circumstances. That's how he'd be marketed, anyhow.
A couple more comments. (a) You just can't rule out Khan or Burnham. These guys' ambition and political capital is so great. Safe seats aren't so hard to find in a hurry: Boris always found one at the drop of a hat.
(b) Having mentioned the Prince of Darkness last time and just out of interest, I have it on good authority Mandelson has already f****d up royally in Washington. Of course, he's made comebacks in the past from many an appalling situation of his own making, so who knows? But right now, his political capital is deep in the red.
Oh, and Lammy? Speaking of in-the-red, he's so far out of the money right now, I almost forgot him.
ND
6 comments:
Dreadfully ungallant to say so but there's precious little good nature that shines from Ms Bridget Phillipson's face. Duncan might have thought "there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face" but Duncan ended up murdered.
Who said “at fifty, everyone has the face he deserves”?
George Orwell, and he knew a thing or two.
Of course Ms P is only 41 but she already has signs of resembling Lady Macbeth. Orwell will prove correct.
Not a surprise about Mandy. He will have made everyone's flesh crawl as soon as he stepped off the 'plane. There probably won't be a nation to govern by the time Starmer and Reeves are finished with us.
dearieme - if that's Lady MacBeth as played by Jane Horrocks at Hammersmith way back when, form a disorderly queue.
Can't say a leadership challenge had crossed my mind. Why bother, why now, who would want the job?
UK politicians of any stripe are guaranteed to fail, there is no point taking the job on unless personal advancement and moneymaking is your goal. Unless you simply like the sound of your own voice. Thankfully some take the job on and are not totally venal.
Yes, they are like rats in a sack - but that is the political animal for you. There being little useful any of them can do the devil makes work for idle hands. In a sane world mass redundancies would be in order. Election time is a long way off and before then the Trump replacement to brighten the landscape.
The Mandy situation does warm the cockles of ones heart, but to be sure he will rise up out the drain smelling of roses - or saying he does.
Trump will be succeeded by Vance as the beneficial effects of the 47th Presidency are felt in American's pocketbooks
I opined the other day that we'd tested the ruin-in-a-nation theory to destruction, and that the last few thousand sub-saharans and Albanians had finally done to the UK what that boatload of West Ham supporters did to Hammersmith Bridge - just put the tin lid on something with severe underlying structural issues.
exhibit a)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/30/the-storm-battered-chancellor-needs-her-nextdoor-neighbour-to-be-a-steadfast-friend#comments
I have never seen such disillusionment among the Guardianistas. Even the blame it all on Brexit brigade are muted or being shouted down.
Then there's this. My understanding is that in almost every local authority these days SEND is a huge money pit, while hedge funds and private equity are investing in special schools:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/30/councils-england-insolvency-risk-send-costs
"The spiralling debts were kept off council books by Tory ministers using an accounting fix called a “statutory override” but this ends on 31 March 2026, when the debt returns to town hall balance sheets. Ministers must now decide whether to clear the debt, or extend the override until the deficits can be cleared safely."
The SEND landscape is almost wholly the creation of the Thatcher, Major and Cameron administrations.
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