Starmer relaunch stalls with wheels falling off again

KEIR STARMER promised Britain “change”. What we actually got is the political equivalent of buying a dressed-up secondhand car with 200,000 miles on the clock. It looks shiny on the forecourt but the moment you drive it off the exhaust falls off, the brakes seize and the engine bursts into flames.

- By Kevin Hollinrake

Barely a year in, his government has lurched from scandal to U-turn to crisis without ever finding anything resembling a steady gear.

Phase 2 of his premiership lasted about as long as a cheap Chinese clutch.

Announced with great fanfare, it collapsed within days when Angela Rayner his supposed deputy and the self-styled voice of Labour “integrity” - careered into a ditch over dodgy tax affairs.

This, remember, was the woman who spent years wagging her finger at Conservatives, lecturing everyone else on probity and moral fibre. Yet when the spotlight turned on her, she turned out to be about as straight as a country Broad in North Yorkshire. One rule for her, another for everyone else.

And what of Starmer?

He just sat there in the driver's seat staring blankly at the dashboard lights flashing red, too timid to do anything decisive.

Eventually Rayner bailed out herself, leaving the Prime Minister looking like a learner driver abandoned on the hard shoulder, clutching the L-plates and wondering where it all went wrong.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country is not exactly enjoying the ride.