Labour Supporters - Do you think it would help if KS was replaced?

[Mrsmunchofmunchington]

I am a life long labour voter. Like many I am incredibly disappointed, in fact I’m devastated by the direction of the current government.

Something needs to change in a pretty radical way or we are opening the door to Deform.

I’m torn between thinking the last thing we need is another revolving door at no 10 but I have lost any confidence that KS is able to lead us out of the mess the tories left us in.

Would it be a good thing to change leaders if this was possible and if so who should it be?

I’m not sure if you’ve missed this, but Labour appointed a Covid corruption minister (Tom Hayhoe) at the end of last year - first task was reviewing the £8.7 billion spent on abandoned PPE, which had to be written off the government’s books and also,
a study showed 135 contracts had red flags for high potential of corruption.
https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/new-research-raises-corruption-questions-over-billions-covid-public-spending
And I’ll post an interesting extract of this from the House of Lords notes from earlier this year.

The lies were endless. The biggest one was supposed Tory Covid PPE contracts corruption - an accusation strangely dropped by Labour once in office. That was the biggest political lie in at least a hundred years.

https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/leaking-vip-lane-names-does-not-get-government-hook-pandemic-procurement

No, I didn’t miss it. He’s not a ‘corruption commissioner’. He’s the ‘Covid counter-fraud commissioner’. He’s looking at fraud against the government, not by it.

You know, the fraud that has always happened against governments and local authorities, and is no doubt going on under this government.

And he’s on a one-year fixed-term contract anyway. Hardly what you’d do if there was some enormous government corruption, is it?

Any thoughts on Michelle Mone?

That article has no date. But assuming it was published under the Tory government, you need to link to all the failed judicial reviews of PPE procurement challenge. GLP lost every single one.

There is no evidence of government corruption. It’s a massive lie.

Not while she’s under criminal investigation, no.

But it’s safe enough to say that the last government brought civil proceedings against her to recover the money. And that she was never in government.

Since all PPE contracts were awarded by civil servants, are you accusing the civil service of corruption?

The process was designed and approved by the government. Civil servants just implemented it. You might want to watch this programme and cut out the gaslighting.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/21/the-covid-contracts-follow-the-money-review-a-devastating-picture-of-the-biggest-spending-scandal-ever

I think by ‘gaslighting’ you mean ‘not agreeing with your baseless assertions’.

If you’re seriously saying that the civil service did nothing but agree with the government about who to give contracts to, I can only say I think you’re badly ill-informed. Read the judgments for god’s sake. This all been through the courts. If you think High Court and Court of Appeal judges were only doing the Tories’ bidding, I really can’t help you.

I’m sorry no.

All public spending on contracts for goods and services above £214k inclusive of VAT was governed by the Public Procurement Regulation of 2015.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/102/contents/made

Politicians don’t procure anything. It’s a highly specialised job requiring qualifications and an understanding of the regulations.

Additionally public transparency notices must be posted at each step of the procurement process. You can see these notices here:

https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search

So as you can see. Specially trained civil servants procure, not politicians.

There certainly was poor procurement, but this would have been due to shortages, urgency and desperation. Not because they were bunging their mates contracts.

I wouldn’t be so definite in any judgement about civil servants or anyone else, when so much is yet to be fully investigated and concluded. I do think it’s important to highlight that it wasn’t just the Labour Party who were/are red-flagging this and criticising the reported VIP/fast-track lanes. Just as an example, I know Hancock has defended it, but recommending to award a local pub landlord - whose business had no previous experience of manufacturing medical supplies - a contract worth millions for vials, after being contacted via a personal WhatsApp message certainly raises a few issues and questions.

And no, Mone not in government, but a Tory appointed peer.

Mone being a Tory peer says absolutely nothing about supposed Tory government corruption. Since under the Tory government steps were taken to get the money back off her it doesn’t look like your allegation against the last government has any worth at all, does it?

The Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office have both looked at PPE procurement. Corruption in government? Zip. Nothing.

Maybe there is more to come out. But then again, maybe there’s lots to come out about Labour corruption. Who knows, eh?

We’ll have to agree to disagree, although only time will tell. There may well be elements of corruption in the Labour government - I wouldn’t be so blinkered or dogmatic to assume otherwise.

It is embarrassing to be a labour supporter!
all those seats and celebration and it has just been a massive underwhelming shitshow

What she said, except I think Starmer's doing a decent job in a bastard situation.

He doesn't need replacing, he needs a MUCH better PR team.

... but Nigel is 'the establishment' ...

He wouldn't need a better PR team if he was doing a good job

Yeh it’s not that. He’s rolling through those. It’s Starmer and policies.

Of course he would. There’s no point in doing a good job if nobody knows about it. Hopefully the comms will be much better now.

Bollocks.
If he and his government were doing a good job there would be nothing negative to report.
So you just want more taxpayer money spent on propogana to try and gaslight us into believing everything is fine?
Of course you do.

I disagree with you both (obviously). I'm not sure he understands how to explain ideas - how to sell them. It's not a failing, a lot of people don't, but the UK media are largely anti-Labour so they need an even more engaging interface than the Tories or Farage PLC.

No, he needs to not have shit policies.

Except he isn't doing a 'good job'. Even the Guardian have turned against Labour.

The media are harsh anyway. Look at partygate onwards. But yes he’s bad at explaining anything.

You don’t need the media to see what is going on.

watch live interviews. Attend his rallies. He is not strong.
he bends the knee to whoever he is told to

No PR team will help. People can see who he is through his actions (like the freebie scandal). I hate this...spin and PR to disguise the real person with an aim of fooling people. He just needs to be himself. And if his true self isn't up to being PM which is becoming clear then he needs to go.

I pray Labout don't go further left. That would be catastrophic and the electorate won't support it. People are small "c" conservative generally in the UK. Or if the Overton window is moving it is moving right not left.