No 10’s Mean Girls moment? How Downing Street seems intent on handing the SNP next year's Scottish election
Scottish Labour figures were in dismay when the story about No10 briefing against Mr Streeting broke on Tuesday evening.
Does someone working in No 10 have money on the SNP winning next year’s Holyrood election?
Downing Street seems intent on regularly making poor decisions which drive voters away from Labour.
First it was the winter fuel payment, then the freebies scandal, Angela Rayner’s resignation and the sacking of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US.
These are just some of the events which have made Sir Keir Starmer one of the most unpopular prime ministers ever.
And now, just two weeks out from the UK Budget, Wes Streeting has been forced to deny plotting against the PM after Sir Keir’s allies briefed against him.
It is just the latest episode in the chaos that has been the past 16 months.
Scottish Labour figures were in dismay when the story about No 10 briefing against Mr Streeting broke on Tuesday evening.
One MP said it was “mad” and it would only “hasten their own demise”. Another said those in No 10 were “deluded” and were entering “tin foil hat territory”.
They added: “Why do they keep turning on their own Cabinet ministers with such vicious and paranoid briefing? First it was Lisa Nandy, then Angela Rayner, then Bridget Phillipson, then Lucy Powell, now Wes.”
One said Mr Streeting had seemed to be getting himself ready for a potential future leadership contest, but that this was “just in case something arises” and was “totally different from a plot”.
A senior Scottish labour figure described the whole debacle as “No10’s Mean Girls moment”.
This was the last thing Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar needs. Next year will be the best opportunity Scottish Labour will have to oust the SNP in well over a decade.
With Scotland’s public services in a poor state and very few folk feeling better off than when the Nationalists came to power in 2007, it should be realistic for Mr Sarwar to be eyeing up Bute House. But Sir Keir’s Government appears to have scuppered his chances.
As one Scottish Labour MP said: “We are not doing well in the polls and it is the UK government’s fault.”
Mr Sarwar’s party is more than ten points behind the SNP and is even at risk of finishing behind Reform UK - a party that does not even have a Scottish leader.
The reason for that is little to do with the Scottish party and everything to do with the UK government.
Scottish Labour wants next year’s election to be a referendum on nearly two decades of SNP rule, but instead it looks like it will be verdict on Sir Keir. The briefing from inside No 10 reinforces the feeling the UK government is in chaos.
After a crisis-ridden final few years in government for the Tories, the public will be getting fed up with the lack of stability from Westminster. It helps the SNP with their message the Conservatives and Labour are similar and the only way out is independence.
With less than six months to go until the Holyrood election, the likelihood of Mr Sarwar becoming first minister gets smaller by the day. His only saving grace is the SNP is well down from where it was under Nicola Sturgeon.
If Mr Sarwar is to somehow win, he will need a hand from the UK government. The least they could do it stop frustrating his efforts at every turn.
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