How No 10 in-fighting, 'needy' MPs and a lack of preparation, all added up to a bumpy start for Keir Starmer
would normally spend Saturday watching his beloved Arsenal. But with no fixture this weekend, the Prime Minister can spend his 100th day in Downing Street reflecting on his record. He’d almost certainly prefer the football.
was busy on the parallel task of masterminding the party’s election campaign. Personality politics was put to one side as Labour focused on their end goal: power.A jubilant Starmer entered No 10 on 4 July. But as soon as the famous black door closed reality hit. Some problems, such as prison overcrowding, were inherited from the Tories. But there were internal issues too.
Amid this atmosphere her salary of £170,000 – higher even than Starmer’s – was leaked to the media. At the time one adviser described it as the “cherry on top of the cake of shit”. A source said the most charitable interpretation was that Ms Gray had not thought it worth bothering Starmer over a personnel matter, but they also offered an alternative interpretation: she had overreached her authority and made an executive decision on his behalf.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper at a Labour conference overshadowed by rows about freebies To help prepare for office The Institute for Government, a respected think-tank which tracks the mechanics of Whitehall, offered training to Labour shadow ministers and their staff in the run-up to the election. Several Shadow Cabinet ministers said at the time the sessions had been useful. Even so, one attendee said 70 per cent of the Labour invitees did not show up.
John Major confounded the polls and Westminster when he won the 1992 election, despite the decreasing popularity of the Conservatives.Yet within weeks of that narrow victory, the Major government was hit by Black Wednesday, when the value of the pound collapsed and severely damaged the Tories’ economic reputation. It was a blow the administration never really recovered from and that scarred party for years.
This coincided with the start of the global financial crisis, which hit home in the UK with the run on the Northern Rock bank in September 2007. Even with maximum advance training, there’s no way Labour could have been properly prepared for what was about to hit them in government. Theo Bertram, a former No 10 adviser to Tony Blair and Brown, who is currently director of the Social Market Foundation, told: “Getting ready for government is like getting ready for parenthood: there is nothing that prepares you.
Those who have worked closely with McSweeney say he is expected to return to the political strategy that he spearheaded during his previous stint as Starmer’s chief of staff, with a focus on running the Government in a campaigning style. This has caused some nervousness among Labour MPs with small majorities, especially among the new cohort. With a long summer break after the election they are also still getting to know each other. Some newbies are still not recognised by their colleagues.Other new MPs also find their expectations of Westminster don’t align with the reality and complain of being sidelined by both the leadership and party managers in the whips’ office.
Even so, MPs are working to bring colleagues onside. They are mindful of how events have played out in the past, such as the 2022 fracking vote where Tory MPs were bullied and manhandled into backing the Government in chaotic scenes that were one of the final reasons Truss’s administration collapsed.
During the election campaign Livermore played a key role in the “quad” directing operations alongside McSweeney, Gray and Pat McFadden, now a Cabinet minister. Ashworth played a more public-facing role, and is seen as effective media performer.“He and Morgan worked well together during the campaign, but he’s got a great new job, would he even want to come back?” one insider questioned.
Nin Pandit, director of the No 10 policy unit since late 2022, has been appointed Starmer’s new principal private secretary – one of the so-called “golden triangle” of senior civil service roles alongside the Cabinet Secretary and the King’s private secretary. She will provide a link with other departments, as well as the Palace.
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