Labour Isn't Working - Thread 30

[WaffleBomb]

A chat thread for those who don't like this Labour government. 💙

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

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Yes she was incapable of getting it. They all got fixated on a form he hadn’t seen.

Her criticism after is clearly off base.

CS will know OR did everything right but got sacked and will act accordingly.

This is worrying. The govt were voted down on this after Rayner's intervention. This will be in defiance of the humble address.

https://www.politico.eu/article/mandelson-files-to-exclude-worst-uk-private-comments-trump/

I suspect any disappointment expressed by Thornberry is about the absence of smoking gun notes and minutes to wave at Starmer.

I cannot believe she thinks Robbins should have been sacked from a very senior job for not having made more extensive records.

I bet the civil service is jotting down everything now!

Having seen Kendall over the weekend and read about today’s attempts to spin Starmer (McFadden and Hodge, apparently) it must now be pretty obvious to every minister and MP sent out on Starmer’s behalf that he is destroying their careers and reputations. A coup would be pushing on an open door IMO.

Ikr. Yet she wasn't seemingly concerned that No.10 released the red box file, even though it's deemed too secret for even the head of FCDO to see - in breach of national security. 🤷‍♂️

That she and others couldn’t grasp that basic piece of information despite him saying it multiple times makes me question that committee process.

He still has a case for following process and being sacked so hopefully that will go ahead. But still, the politicians are so shady on this.

I’m not surprised or bothered by that story. I doubt any government would want to publish compromising remarks about foreign leaders or functionaries. That seems normal to me. The only issue would be if information relevant to Mandelson/Starmer was lost in the process. If that’s ever a decision that has to be made then they absolutely should publish, and just have to swallow the embarrassment.

Oh absolutely OR is going for unfair dismissal unless a deal is done. The reputation of the CS is at stake. Not only that, outgoing cab sec warns KS to wait for vetting. They have a strong defence here, it was a political appointment railroaded through by politicians.

I’d honesty go 20 rounds over it if I was OR as it stinks. And as for trying to get Doyle in on the gravy train too..

I disagree with you here. I think there will be an earthquake if this happens.
The govt originally wanted this and didn't succeed. It provides a lot of hiding places for stuff that they'd rather not see daylight, which even Labour MPs didn't want to happen, hence the vote. Also defies a humble address, which as we've heard before, defies the King.

Imagine being that good and loving your job as he clearly did then a politician deciding yeh it’s ok to wrongly sack you because you didn’t make some notes.

Fuck that. The CS WhatsApp groups will be going nuts I bet.

From The Times today. Accurate.

Fair enough. But it does all depend on what comes out and why. I would have thought that careful redaction could remove embarrassing but irrelevant stuff and leave in anything that should be seen.

Yeah, I'm sure they'll try, whatever the outcome. The longer this drags on, the longer Labour MPs will keep Starmer in post. They'll want him to take the blame.

That’s so good.

Plus what Starmer said in the house was wrong. He said OR went because he got it wrong on not being able to tell him UKSV info.

OR was right he wasn’t meant to by process. I can’t believe ET went through that and said something lame about notes.

She didn’t even ascertain if KS was right, he wasn’t. How is that a decent committee process?

Bloody hell these people

MRP for London. Oof.

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54598-yougovs-mrp-of-the-2026-london-local-elections-shows-close-races-in-many-boroughs

I agree.
I think Labour thought it was all about process and vetting, so thought that if they could prove that OR didn't share it, KS was in the clear. It has backfired spectacularly.
I've seen comments calling for OR to be the next PM. 😂

Ha yeh he’d definitely be better than the current one. Maybe he could fire him with a note.

Robbins’ defence of himself seems very strong. Which means he probably didn’t tell Starmer. Because he didn’t believe he could. So Robbins sacking is a disgrace.

But what I still don’t understand is how Starmer can claim not to have known about the vetting failure until the Guardian published it when it had been out there via the Indy months before. And his head of press was explicitly told about it before the Indy published.

Plus there might have been a statement in parliament by an MP about the same thing, but I can’t find that to know the details.

I also think Starmer’s in deep trouble over at least one answer he gave on Monday. A Tory asked Starmer if there had been any other political appointments made in the diplomatic service under him. Starmer said he’d have to come back to the MP. Now we know that Starmer tried to get Doyle, his former head of comms, a post. How the fuck could that have slipped his mind? That is misleading evasion on a grand scale.

He couldn’t tell him re UKSV info and that will be the process in any guidance so he’ll be right on that.

KS doesn’t have a leg to stand on wrt the announcement he made in the house on OR getting it wrong. Bizarrely ET couldn’t grasp what was being said either.

Agree with the rest of your post, so if he gets back to that asker then surely in the house which will be uncomfortable for him.

Re the clip I saw it on one of these threads but can’t recall which, ik what you are referring to though.

Sorry @DenizenOfAisleOfShame I missed your earlier request.

It was Lib Dem Rachel Gilmour on 16th September. Hope that helps.

I'm just on a teams meeting, but will have a look for a clip later if you can't find it.

Just listening to McFadden again he’s got it wrong too. OR didn’t withhold information. He followed guidance and process.

Even listening to people talk only a few get it. It’s bizarre they can’t grasp it though.

Oh I think they get it, they just don't want it to be true so hoping the public don't understand the fine detail.
OR has bazookad Starmer's defence, and they know it.

Brilliant. Many thanks.

AC on latest TRIP pinning it all on process issues, completely disagree, it’s utterly clear that there was a top down push from number 10 that’s the main issue. AC much more pro KS on latest episode,
wondering if that means it’s clear KS is off soon and not kicking someone whilst they’re down…

I was unfair to the Libs in my earlier post. It was a LibDem MP who put the question to Starmer. The relevant bit is this:

”Will the Prime Minister at least confirm to the House that this was a singular error of judgment, and that his No. 10 operation has not proposed a political appointee for any other senior role in the FCDO?”

It’s even worse than I had remembered. It asks about proposed political appointments. It is just not credible that Starmer couldn’t recall that he tried to get his head of comms a head of mission role - and to hide the attempt from his Foreign Secretary! Not answering that question is curtains for Starmer, surely.

Starmer has just admitted the Matthew Doyle stuff. Good grief.