'No 10 is dysfunctional': Labour heads for a summer of discontent

Ministers warn of tax rises ahead of next month's spending review, while senior figures bemoan a lack of vision. By political editor Rachel Sylvester

- Rachel Sylvester

As negotiations intensify in advance of the spending review next month, tensions around the cabinet table are blowing up.

Both Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, stormed out of recent meetings with Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, in protest at the demands being put on their departments. “It’s pretty brutal,” one cabinet minister says. “There will have to be tax rises in the budget. We can’t squeeze spending any more.”

If Keir Starmer thought last week was tough, as he was berated by dozens of Labour MPs in a Commons committee room then announced his first major U-turn, on the winter fuel allowance, things are about to get a lot harder. At the start of what is turning into a Labour summer of discontent, cabinet unity is fraying and a growing number of backbenchers are growing rebellious. “There’s a major wobble,” one frontbencher says. “The thing people crave more than anything is leadership.”