How the scapegoating of a respected civil servant may lead to Starmer's downfall

How the scapegoating of a respected civil servant may lead to Starmer's downfall Submitted by Peter Oborne on Wed, 04/22/2026 - 09:19 This is a moment of maximum danger for the British PM - his actions have made him vastly unpopular not just with the electorate, but with his own cabinet and civil service too Sir Oliver Robbins, former permanent secretary to the foreign office, gives evidence to a Westminster select committee, London, 21 April in this screengrab of parliamentary footage (Handout/PRU/AFP) On Sir Keir Starmer was elected prime minister just under two years ago amidst a surge of national goodwill. This had little or nothing to do with his own robotic personality. Britons were fed up with the sleaze, lies, incompetence and the endless chaos of the outgoing Tory government. The nation judged that though Starmer lacked charm he was capable of running a government with integrity and efficiency. That proved a false hope. Since entering Downing Street, Starmer has made a series of stupid and avoidable errors, of which the most grotesque was the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to the US. People are asking whether Starmer can survive following the evidence given by Sir Oliver Robbins, former permanent secretary to the foreign office, to the House of Commons on Tuesday. The answer is that he can.  Robbins’ evidence was uncomfortable for the prime minister. But he was reassuring on the crucial point.  When the prime minister told MPs last week that he did not know that the wretched Mandelson had failed security vetting, the prime minister was telling the truth.  Had Robbins provided proof that Downing Street knew, Starmer would be making his resignation statement today. Gravely diminished So Starmer survives. For the time being and gravely diminished. He has emerged from the Mandelson business as an unpleasant human being. Robbins, a loyal and decent official, was at worst guilty of trying to help the prime minister out of a tight spot. Epstein files: Mandelson scandal indicts the entire British establishment Read More » Starmer’s response was to trash his reputation, then sack him.  This means that the British prime minister is a bad egg, a stinker, a creep, a louse. Not a man to go tiger shooting with. A fatal companion in the trenches. This matters.  Starmer has damaged his relationship with the civil service, which will make it more difficult for the government to carry out its business. If they were in any doubt before, cabinet colleagues now know for certain that, given the chance, Starmer will stab them in the back. They will eye him with even more caution and contempt than before. The voters don’t like him, and nor do his MPs. None of the above is fatal. It is exceptionally hard to dislodge an incumbent prime minister. Sixteen years ago senior cabinet ministers resigned in a plot to force out Gordon Brown. It made no difference. More recently the majority of Labour MPs tried to drive Jeremy Corbyn out as party leader. He carried on regardless. The issue is further complicated by lack of an obvious replacement, made yet worse by mutual suspicion among likely successors. One further point: Labour MPs know how much damage the Tories regular churn of incompetent leaders inflicted not only on the party’s reputation, but also the British state.  They fear that if Starmer’s successor also turns out to be a dud, they will make Labour a national joke and turn Britain into a global laughing stock.  This has consequences beyond Westminster.  The cost of the national debt is already too high. As the dismal example of Liz Truss shows, political chaos will drive it up further. Days numbered For all that I am convinced it is in the national interest that Starmer should go. To explain why involves an excursion into recent political history, and the formation 10 years ago of a group called Labour Together. Starmer has damaged his relationship with the civil service, which will make it more difficult for the government to carry out its business Labour Together - as its name suggests - projected itself as a unifying group embracing left and right wings of Labour. As Paul Holden has explained in his investigative study of the rise of Starmer, The Fraud, this was entirely misleading. In reality Labour Together should be seen as a right-wing version of the hard left entryist Militant Tendency, dedicated to the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn, and unscrupulous about its methods.  Its leader was Morgan McSweeney and Keir Starmer was McSweeney's chosen instrument.  The project was stunningly successful. In October 2023 - nine months before the general election - the political website Politico noted that "nearly all the MPs credited with building Labour Together since 2017” - it named Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood, Steve Reed, Bridget Phillipson, Lucy Powell and Lisa Nandy - “now sit in Starmer's top team".  One key inspiration for Labour Together was Mandelson, who had played the role of political svengali to both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown 20 years earlier. Mandelson was McSweeney’s mentor and friend. The evidence suggests that with Starmer in Downing Street, McSweeney, in some respects honourably, felt determined to reward his patron. This is the most obvious explanation for Starmer’s determination to send Mandelson to Washington, to ignore the obvious red flag of Epstein, and to drive through the appointment at all costs, resulting in the fiasco discussed in parliament yesterday. Stolen Labour's soul But Labour Together under McSweeney has had one yet more devastating  consequence. It has stolen Labour’s soul. The fall of Mandelson and McSweeney proves Corbyn was right Read More » The Starmer government, with McSweeney as chief of staff, brutally targeted the Labour left over public ownership, living conditions, tax and Gaza. Most despicably of all with a reversion to the racist politics of Enoch Powell, turning on minorities with talk of an "island of strangers". McSweeney’s idea was to win back Labour’s "hero voters" in the "red wall" seats in the north of England. This strategy catastrophically backfired. In reality, by driving left-wing voters out of the party, Starmer and McSweeney created the conditions for the rise of Zack Polanski and the Greens. Labour is braced for electoral humiliation as the Greens surge in next month’s local elections.  Wait for the aftermath of 7 May. That is the moment of maximum danger for Starmer. The voters disdained by McSweeney may take their revenge. And so may Sir Keir Starmer's cabinet colleagues.  The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. UK Politics Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0