To think incompetent hypocrite Starmer has lost the respect of the people and his own party in record time?

[TealTraybake]

An excoriating letter from Rosie Duffield who resigned today..

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rosie-duffield-resignation-letter-starmer-labour-b2620603.html#comments-area

Been bad enough for her to resign, I wonder what will happen next. Does she know something we don’t?

Voted Labour this time although was thinking of voting for a local independent candidate who I know personally - a local council type who does so much in the community and has done for many years.
I am disabled and enough where it limits my life.
It is through no fault of my own and I was able bodied in my younger years.
I am absolutely terrified now. Really scared.
As for the all of freebies, yes I know all about Johnson and his wallpaper and Covid contracts, but I thought these people were reading the room. We are sick of it. There was no need to accept clothes and glasses and as for needing an apartment for your son to revise in? There are millions of kids going to school with no breakfast. There are teachers spending their own money to help them. It’s entitlement at its most hypocritical.
The Chancellor is also a concern for me.
A few weeks in and I’m disillusioned. I can remember when Blair got in and it felt like an uplifting time. I know how things ended in terms of the war, but at least for a while ordinary working people benefitted from some policies.
I am really, really worried about issues like PIP. It is a lifeline for some.

Rishi Sunak had gifts of £11496. During the election alone. It is more difficult to work out what ministers received as unlike back bench and opposition MPs, the register of interests does not give the exact value of the hospitality given to ministers is nolt in the government transparency data.

Selling that line for the GE was ludicrous

For that he deserves this

What exactly is going to "come out?"

It is funny you don't mention the "prints" of Alison Saunders, who was made a Dame under the Tories. If Starmer was involved in a cover up (he wasn't) then so was she (she wasn't).

I assume she means cronyism.

Unless she thinks Ellie Reeves doesn't deserve her position in the cabinet, and only has it because she's Rachel Reeves' sister.

She could mean Sue Gray's son (was she talking specifically about the cabinet, or in general?). Maybe his selection as a candidate, or him being made a PPS.

The WFA needed to be means tested out of the hands of wealthy pensioners. £218.15 a week as a single pensioner is the threshold for pension credit. In what world is that wealthy ?

Rachel Reeves’ ministerial salary is circa £150,000 pa. She, as chancellor, more than anyone, knows the difference between rich and poor but still chose the lazy option of aligning the WFA with pension credit, and she’s fully aware of the effect it will have on those just above the threshold. If all pensioners who are entitled take up pension credit, that will not only wipe out the savings from means testing, but will add more to the benefits bill. Spectacular unintended consequences.

And that £23bn isn’t pensioner entitlement alone. It’s the total amount of benefits which go unclaimed each year, including working age benefits. £2.2bn is the 2024 figure for unclaimed pension credit, which has a knock on effect on other associated benefits, including £5bn of unclaimed benefits administered a local authority level.

I bet Rishi Sunak is laughing into his gin and tonic every night.🍸

'You wanted to be the big man, Keir, and have the big man job...now you can enjoy all the shit that comes with it's.
Shit of your own making, too'.

I think Theresa May did the same thing after Boris Johnson became PM.

Really? How do you know this?

She couldn't have waited until the budget to reveal that - the budget is 30th October. There'd have been a lot of (legitimate) criticism that not only are you taking it away, you're taking it away with no notice. And it wouldn't have given people time to check eligibility for pension credits and apply.

They could have removed WFA in 2025.

They could have announced a gradual phasing in of VAT on school fees starting at 10% moving up to 20% for all those parents with children already in private education.

There are many things that can be done subtly to foster good relations. Instead the approach has been to label taxpayers as entitled, all done with an air of arrogance.

An incoming government needs to build goodwill. It is pretty impossible to do that from a negative base. Starmer will be gone within the next 2-3 years. Then Labour will infight and will lose the next general election.

These are Ratner moments.

Al Fayed was accused of indecent assault against a 15-year-old girl in 2008. CPS were presented with the case in 2009, but declined to bring charges, citing conflicting evidence. Al Fayed was also accused of raping an employee in 2013 - the case was passed to the CPS in 2015 after two separate police investigations. Again, no charges were brought. Both Starmer and Saunders were DPP at the times the CPS made these decisions. A spokesman said that the case in 2009 ‘never crossed Starmers’ desk’. Which, if I remember rightly, was how his non-involvement with the Savile case was described - the escalation process didn’t allow for the reviewing lawyer to escalate to the DPP for review before cases were closed.

Biggest tool in the box.

Must be so hard being the richest generation ever to exist 😔

I don't think the removal of the WFA for wealthy pensioners is a bad thing. However, I think the way that the Labour govt has gone about things shows a real lack of awareness. It could have been phased in gradually. The while gloom and doom message has just brought any euphoria and optimism from the election down with a bump very quickly.

There seems a lack of any real understanding as to how things look. The expenses issues given what KS said about the BJ makes him look like a hypocrite. Sadly and I really feel this shouldn't make a difference but given his whole demeanour his lack of charisma has also not helped.
I can't see the Labour Party having more than one term the way things are going.

You know nothing of my living situation. What a stupid ignorant comment.

My mum is 93 and gets £300 - the maximum you can claim, and if she was living with a partner the amount would be exactly the same.

That old trope !!

I’m old-and we are the wealthiest generation as a generalisation. So to give us all WFA is crazy when young people struggling with high rents and minimum wage jobs get nothing. The threshold is set too low-Labour were daft not to see that coming-but to give us all free money because we’re old is nuts.

WFA- the threshold is far too low. Yes some boomers are loaded. But not all. I agree that some don’t need WFA but the cut off is far too low and many pensioners need the heating on more than younger people.
people need to stop with the whole tories are worse stuff. That’s irrelevant. I’m judging the government on what it is to be a decent and compassionate public servant - not if they are less corrupt than someone else.
They come across as incompetent- pp said 6th formers playing at politics. Spot on.

Totally agree. I was suspicious of Starmer pre election; he came across as controlling and evasive and I just couldn't bring myself to vote Labour because of him. All this talk about integrity etc and then he grabs all this stuff; what was he thinking, was he thinking? I found it upsetting reading the list of the goodies he had received when life is hard for so many people. We're also only four years on from the pandemic and whilst some people may have bounced back, I haven't due to long covid so to continually hear how bad the budget is going to be is making me feel even more anxious about the future. And then there is the WFA which I know has been talked to death but its the lack of critical thought that has made me really question Starmer's judgement. I mean removing WFA without considering the impact on the poorest (those above the cut off point) is pretty poor and makes him appear cold and vindictive. I was hoping for better.

I'm a pensioner so not sure PIP applies. I'm also in Wales so not sure what applies.

I just need to park near the shops because I'm in such pain and can't walk far even with a stick. My scoliosis has finally won now arthritis has set in which was in the consultant reports.

Beergate happened.

Sue Gray son was also blessed with money from Lord Alli. Mmmm

I always go to the polling station although I may have chosen to write “none of the above” on my paper from time to time. I would like to see voting being mandatory but with an official “none of the above” option on the ballot paper. That vote should also be publicly declared and could be used for a proportion of the MPs, perhaps? To vote needs a different system but we also need everyone to engage to prevent major swings like this on a vote from a percentage of the population which isn’t really representative of the country’s views.

I've got this image in my head of Raynor swanning around Alli's Manhattan pad with her "Friend". At new year in a seductive red outfit.

Every time I think of it I'm amused.

I'd have to replace the mattress though 🤣🤣