𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Olly Robbins did not deliberately set out to destroy Keir Starmer’s reputation today. But he did so anyway. This was two-and-a-half hours of pure dynamite, from which the Prime Minister will surely find it impossible to recover. Yesterday, we watched endless politicians asking Starmer a series of questions that were designed to make his position untenable. Two of them even accused him of lying. But even as a collective they failed to pack the punch that Robbins delivered with such devastating Civil Service reserve, decorum and accuracy. Three things stand out. First, Sir Keir was so desperate to appoint Lord Mandelson to the crucial role of Ambassador to Washington that he announced to the world that he had done so without waiting, as he’d been advised, to ensure security clearance.

And remember, we’re not talking about any career diplomat here. We’re talking about a man who had twice been sacked from ministerial roles for unethical behaviour. Secondly, despite requiring the Foreign Office to drastically reduce its headcount, which meant that good, senior diplomats would be made redundant, the Prime Minister’s office lobbied Robbins to find an ambassadorial role for Number 10s Communications Director, Matthew Doyle, who had no diplomatic experience and who, we subsequently discover, had campaigned for the election of a sex offender after he had been charged.

Finally, we now know, thanks to Robbin’s meticulously laying out of the process by which Mandelson came to be appointed, that he and his team acted throughout with integrity and in accordance with the rules.

The Prime Minister’s decision to sack him on Thursday night was therefore the most egregious error, horrifically premature, and designed purely to prop up his own position and to shift the blame elsewhere.

If yesterday was diabolical for Sir Keir, today has been far worse, and Labour MPs must realise that the game is up. They must realise that the man who portrayed himself as Mr Integrity, Mr Process and Mr Follow the Rules is actually a man of catastrophically poor judgment, who has compounded the original sin of appointing Mandelson to Washington with what looks only too much like a series of further deceits and missteps, each of which have dug an even deeper hole. They must realise that Sir Keir is leading them to electoral disaster.

We understand that these Labour MPs might look at would-be successors, scratch their heads and worry that there’s nobody up to the job. Streeting has far too many links with Mandelson, they’ll think. Rayner had to resign in disgrace.

Miliband was roundly rejected by the electorate just a decade ago. Burham isn’t even an MP. We understand the difficulty. But given the events of this morning, they might also reframe this question and ask not who could be better, but how any of them could be worse.

I have no personal grudge against Keir Starmer. I have no reason to believe that he is an unpleasant person. But I see a man who is unsuited to his office, a man of poor judgment, a man who continually fails to live up to the high standards he sets for others and a man who, so long as he remains as Prime Minister, is damaging our country.

From freebies and flip-flops to sacking countless officials, dodging questions and breaking manifesto commitments, I cannot think of a worse prime minister in my lifetime.

None of Miliband, Rayner, Burham or Streeting fill me with confidence. But I can honestly say that any of them would be an improvement. Let’s pray it happens quickly.