How stupid are Labour MPs?!

[JoyousOpalLemur]

One after the other on the BBC this morning, all but one patting themselves on the back and almost dancing for how clever they are that they're forcing Starmer to resign so that Burnham will be coronated the new PM.

They all think they've got the new Boris.

Maybe he is, but it didn't work out very well for him - or for us - did it?

Starmer stood for leader once, won by a landslide, and then won a landslide general election. Burnham has stood for leader twice before, and got trounced both times. Winning a mayoral election in a Labour heartland is hardly a remarkable achievement.

They all seem to think Burnham will unite the left, but he hasn't given one policy idea that will appeal to left wing voters.

Starmer is a decent man. I don't regret voting for him. Burnham is an actor who says anything that he thinks will make him popular. I know who I'd rather have.

Well said. I 100% agree. I think a lot of MPs will come to regret this when it becomes a binary choice between harder left and very hard right.

They all think they've got the new Boris

I really don't think that would be what any Labour MP would want.

My concern is that all this has been whipped up by the press and media. I’m not sure I want the running of the country to be based on who is most photogenic and who delivers the best one-liners. Burnham is a camera friendly chap with popular appeal, but he’s never done anything outside politics. Starmer may be stodgy and unexciting, but he had a serious legal career before becoming an MP, and he’s got the insight, experience and patience to make unpopular decisions for long term gain for the country. It feels as if Starmer the boring adult may be replaced by Burnham the cool teenager. We shall see.

There are very few MPs who have had real jobs.

Being the Attorney general is not a real job. He's got his own act of parliament for his pension fgs.

Andy Burnham has not existed in the real world.

From wiki
He joined the Labour Party at the age of 15 and his early career included working as a researcher for Tessa Jowell, a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation and an administrator with the Football Task Force. From 1998 to 2001, he was a special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith. At the 2001 general election, he was elected as MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester. Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he held several government roles, including parliamentary private secretary; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department; Minister of State for Health; Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and Culture Secretary. In 2009, he was promoted to Health Secretary, a role in which he responded to the swine flu pandemic and launched an independent inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

They want the Labour Boris and they think they've got him with Burnham.

And maybe they're right.

The press have not done this. Labour MPs have done this. They have undermined their own government from the very start. The constant u turns have been forced by them, and they are the ones who have been agitating for Burnham. Of course the press are going to amplify this. The press has been ' right wing' for 50 years. I'm not sure what Labour want to happen with the press. Government press regulation will only work in their favour when they are the government, which is why dictatorships love it so much, so they need to stop blaming the press for their problems. Especially in the Social media era.

Most of the biggest news websites and apps in this country are left wing or establishment left these days, like the BBC, Guardian, Sky News and Independent.

I agree with you though - this has all been driven by Labour MPs, who think they're so clever that they've installed someone the public hasn't voted for in to replace the one we did vote for.

I agree on press, Labour use the excuse when the press go for anyone in power including the last gov.

On who’s to blame it’s on Starmer. Labour MPs will want someone who isn’t an electoral liability.

It reminds me of the hype that surrounded Corbyn - and look how that went.

I agree completely.
Andy Burnham stood and won the Makerfield by-election standing for The Andy Burnham Party.

Totally agree.

The roads round here didn't suddenly fall apart when labour came to government... They were knackered by the tories.

Same with our local hospital. It was in ruins 2yrs ago. The only thing keeping it running was the extortionate car park fees.

I feel keir starmer had no chance. None whatsoever... He was set up to fail by the tories who had milked the coffees dry through greed... Baroness mone... Or incompetence... That god awful health secretary, Matt hancock.

Starmer has tried. Really tried.

His wife must be telling him "what's the point?" (he's gone grey in 2yrs and could be earning ten times more doing something else...)

The tory pm's quit, milked the leaving perks and didn't look back. Starmer has really tried to steady the ship.

Starmer or truss? Smallcock? Boris? That woman who cried about the 'country that I loved..' (dear God), kwami kwarteng, billionaire rishi who has vanished to his palaces (maharajah of the dales - that's what he's known as there)...

I'd keep starmer all day.

The only 'good news' was that the tories got just 2% of the election vote in Burnham constituency. 2 in 100!!! They are gone....

I agree. I was talking about the excuses Labour always use. Because the alternative would be to actually take a good hard look at themselves instead of blaming the press, or the electorate. It's like their 2019 election campaign where they presented an absolutely stupid and unworkable Brexit plan, and whenever anyone pointed out that negotiating something and then openly saying they were going to campaign against it was unworkable, blamed the electorate for being too stupid to understand it- then they were hammered and blamed ' the Right wing press' and have now denied the 2019 election even happened.

This reminds of the hype around Boris Johnson, a popular Mayor , but unable to stay on as PM.
I do think the same thing will happen here or the press will dig up a lot of dirt on AB. I hope his ready for the onslaught as it’ll be vicious and he comes across quite thin skinned.

I cannot understand this at all.

Labour should continue their work with Keir as PM until shortly prior to the next GE, then would be the time to have the leadership contest ready for the campaign for the GE, giving Kier or new PM a strong mandate to lead Labour into another term.

The problem Starmer has also had has been his backbenchers have behaved just as disgracefully as the Tory backbenchers did in the last parliament, which has made it too difficult for him to do anything. The result - the economy just gets worse, and prices go up even higher.

Burnham will have the same problem.

Starmer always does this blame everyone else stuff, it’s nonsense and everyone can see through it.

That list of names seems a bit odd too

AB may swing more to the left and keep a few people happy if he gets the top job , but keeping the LP in order is like it is with the conservatives. It seems to be going that way. Conservatives mark II.

Agree 100%

I feel a bit sorry for Starmer

Unless Andy Burnham can literally shit cash I don’t see what he can do that will please the people that are bored of Starmer. Welfare will still need to be cut to fund defence, councils will still be bankrupt, there will still be no solution to the massive money pit that is health and social care, the cost of living will still be intolerable and the public sector will still decline to the point of no longer working.

What exactly do they think will happen?

Defence wants lots of new money. Where is that coming from ?
I agree it’s a poor show and nothing that AB said on Friday seemed to tackle any of the problems that are stacking up with everyone wanting more , but no clue how to get it.

This could be true.
But it's also true that Starmer is so wooden that birds nest in him.😃

Totally ageee. DH and I have just been taking about this. We can’t see what Starmer has done wrong. He’s just but a showman.

My dh has never voted Labour , but even he is puzzled by the general hate that the PM gets.
I suppose it’s just how it is isn’t it. Social media and the press seem to like the revolving door of British politics
I am not a keen supporter of his myself , but it must be hard seeing all the negative news around about yourself. Even Michael Gove said the same this morning! The big personalities didn’t go well for the conservatives in the end either though.
The press won’t be happy until there is another GE.
Thats the thing they shall push for next.

@noblegiraffe , what will happen is that there will be an overhaul of the leader and cabinet. Things will look good for a while then people will realise that Burnham isn't the messiah.
The press have done a hatchet job.
(They did the same to Mrs May.)

Not the theme of the thread and I don't want to derail but what's happened to the Opposition?

No, but I daresay they think they’ll get a ‘Burnham Bounce’.

Idiots.