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.

Starmer is not really decent, he promised (lied) to so many groups that he would give them everything they wanted and he has failed most

I hear the "14 years" about the Tory's a lot but you can't deny he has had nearly two years in power and nothing feels any better.
Yes, world events have affected some things.
The "14 years" can apply equally to Labour, they had all that time to work it out but when they got power, with a massive mandate, they have wasted it.
We're going to be stuck with Burnham for three years, I hope he has some guts to say no to some in the PLP.
A good PM will only be a good PM if they make some tough, at times unpopular, decisions.

Honestly, the overhaul of the cabinet is one of the worst things to come out of this shitshow. Anything that was potentially about to happen will now not happen. Government will basically slow to a halt while people get to grips with their new jobs and then everything will have to change so that people can 'make their mark'.

So fucking pointless.

My heart sank when he clapped back at some Daily Mail jab by posting his running times to them on X. Who has time for that as PM? We don't need that kind of thin skinned person in the job and they should be getting on with the actual job.

Starmer created the problem with the winter fuel decision - it's not surprising they opposed that type of policy.

@DevillesAdvocate , the mess the Tory years created did a lot of damage. Brexit for a start.
Other European countries are doing badly too.

@noblegiraffe , it won't be a complete overhaul. Weasel will get a job. Rachel will be gone.

@letsallchant , the whole London Marathon irritates me. I have nothing against marathons otherwise.

@concertinacornflake , it was a gift to the right-wing press. Perfect headline fodder. Same with farmers' IHT.

As much as I didn’t like the Conservatives under Mrs Thatcher, she didn’t do the u turning and stuck to her beliefs.
She was strong, but people didn’t like that either did they.
Seems you can’t win in politics can you. Not for the faint hearted.

How do you know it won't be a complete overhaul? Has Burnham said that? What about the ed sec because we are waiting on some fairly urgent decisions right now.

I agree about Burnham needing to show some guts, like not putting 11 year old girls on the highway to hell of crazed experimentation with dangerous drugs euphemistically known as ‘puberty blockers’.

We’ll see. I think Burnham is terrified of the violent, law-breaking, radical TRAs (just like all the others), some of whom frankly need to be proscribed as a terrorist group. And they’ll sacrifice kids to appease these new, dreadful entities making horrible noises.

Because he’s frit.

i dont like the constant changing of PMs, every couple of years. We need stability

I think one or two will stay. One being Shobana Mahmood.

She's the only one in government who seems to actually be good at her job.

But like I said, we are awaiting some urgent decisions in education right now and switching education secretaries would be unacceptable.

There will be a short period where they’ll all gush about how brilliant Burnham is and then the tide will slowly turn against him. The only thing the right wing press want is a reform government and they will stop at nothing to drag Labour down, as they have been doing since Starmer was elected. Burnham won’t be any different.

It’s a crying shame that Labour MPs can’t see the damage they have now done. It’s going to be a slippery slope to Farage as prime minister and they’ve all played a hand in it with this nonsense

My daughter has just turned - 15 - she said to me today she has had 6 prime ministers in her lifetime. I am 53 and have only had 7 more!

I just want stability

So Kier won't stand for the leadership if he steps down? I don't want to vote for AB or Wes.

She is good. Is Bridget Philipson good as Education Secretary? I've not heard anything bad but I've not been particularly affected.

Ed Milliband? Stay or go? He's another one who had a hatchet job done on him.

Labour were opposition for 14 years and treated it like a free holiday.
They have not put any thought into running a real economy, because most of them have no real world skills.

You can expect more of the same shit.
The backbenchers will deny economic reality, just as they've denied biological reality.

Eh? The mail, the express, the telegraph, Gbeebies etc are all rabidly right wing.

The U.K. press is right wing dominant.

@JoyousOpalLemur ,
If you think that '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 can only assume that your idea of left of centre is Kemi Badenoch.

The UK is a poisoned chalice. We all like to think we are a wealthy country, but we barely have a manufacturing industry at all. We don't produce much food.
We used to have an empire that brought great wealth that trickled down and meant we could afford compulsory, universal education, social housing, child benefit and the NHS. But we assumed this could continue and develop so the NHS deals with far more than the basic healthcare it was set up for, there are benefits for -seemingly- almost everyone, for something. No wealth is being created to pay for all this, it's all paid for on "the never never".
People expect constant progress. You see it on MN all the time, "how can this be, in 2026?!?" How can we expect infinite growth from a finite country, it's a ridiculous notion.
No politician can fix it.

She presented herself as strong but she wasn't wise. She should have u-turned on the poll tax, 100 injured in just one protest, she may not have been challenged for her leadership and had to withdraw.

lol at most of these being left wing. lol at most of the media being left wing

Starmer has failed, lied, been untrustworthy. AB will cause damage. There will be a call for a GE. Labour won’t be given another chance for a very very long time.

Lied? Untrustworthy? Can you elaborate?

I was a Starmer supporter, I voted for him in the Labour leadership election, but he has really disappointed me for the following reasons:

The constant chasing of Reform voters in the face of all polling which suggested Labour were losing votes to the left where it really mattered, not the right.
Horrible right wing rhetoric (island of strangers) which I really don’t expect or want from the Labour Party and which just fuelled division.
Awful policies like the attempted blanket cutting of the winter fuel allowance - although I agree it needed to be means tested. Likewise the attempted cut to PIP with no real consultation and primarily as a cost cutting exercise rather than a real attempt at helping disabled people to work. I say this as a disabled person who works, doesn’t claim benefits and really believes in the positive benefits of working.
No real vision or plan - or the failure to communicate one.
Piss poor communication overall.
Squandering two years of a massive majority with very little to show for it.
Absolute timidity with no bold policies or taking the fight to Farage.
Allowing party donors to pay for things like clothes and glasses. It’s not a good look, Keir Starmer is rich, he should be paying for his own workwear. Just because the Tories do this shit doesn’t mean Labour should.

I hope Andy Burnham can do things better. It was a brave move standing in Makerfield and he destroyed the opposition. I want to see more of this. Keir Starmer isn’t a bad man but it’s become very clear that he didn’t have a plan and he is very unsuited to the role of Prime Minister. People just don’t like him,
it’s a shame but they don’t.

In direct answer to the thread title, most Labour MPs are very stupid. Most have just followed a route to Westminster from student politics to a trade union or NGO or charity or public sector job, all the time with an eye on (hopes of) influence and (the certainty of) an MP’s salary and pension.

There used to be self-made working class and middle-class intellectual groupings within Labour that supplied savvy and brains. They’ve mostly gone now. The party’s left with a bulk of left-wing drone time servers.

It’s a delight to see the occasional remnant of the intelligent, decent left pop up now and again, like Lord Glasman, but they’re too rare to make any real difference.

The wretched public sector bore with a lanyard is the core of Labour now.