A major January “reset” was on the agenda, putting the NHS front and centre again, after the derided “milestones and missions” speech of December.
Except, how could Lyons have foreseen the explosions Elon Musk began lobbing from his social media platform, X, firing off deeply personal accusations about Starmer’s role leading the Crown Prosecution Service during the Rochdale grooming gang scandal? These included the wildly hyperbolic and inaccurate accusation that Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”.
Messaging on the NHS and education reforms were drowned out as the two main parties, plus Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Musk slogged it out for message supremacy. If Musk’s main priority was to blow Starmer off course, he won.
But there was one Labour voice markedly absent in the battle last week: Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Her sprawling portfolio does not have quite the urgent status of the NHS or education, meaning she is less present on the airways – unlike her equally ambitious colleagues, Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson. And it grates.
Is there future trouble brewing? In December at a Spectator magazine ceremony, while receiving the coveted politician of the year award, she joked to Streeting about their leadership aspirations. “You know we’re in competition,” she quipped to booming laughter from the delighted dinner crowd. That morning, she had recorded a BBC Politics interview where she described Starmer’s leadership style as like that of a “civil servant”. Oof.
Rachel Reeves's biggest problem is how vulnerable she looks
Read MoreRayner, born in Stockport and MP for Ashton in Greater Manchester, speaks to the heartlands. She has Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson’s ability to speak anti-establishment, while being part of it. She is also a traditional union woman.
As the architect of Labour’s winning election strategy, McSweeney will know that, given her popularity in the party and as Starmer comes under increasing pressure, No 10 cannot afford to alienate her. Especially as Starmer’s former greatest asset, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, is currently suffering a reputational battering. The grassroots site, Labour List, is polling on whether the Chancellor should be removed.
Will Starmer let his own insecurities and wish for control continue to aggravate Labour’s much-loved fiery star? Or can he recognise Rayner should be unleashed, set free to take on the dogs of Reform, let her have some limelight in an arena he cannot win in?
Otherwise, it might not just be X’s problematic owner lobbing in a few explosions.
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