Top News

Make no mistake, this is a country in crisis led by a Government in crisis. A 24-carat crisis.

Sir Keir Starmer - prime minister at the time of writing - staged his version of the Alamo yesterday as he barricaded himself inside No 10.

A man whose authority has been stripped away and is now left impotent fought back in the only way he knew: by quoting a regulatory framework.

Starmer, on his last legs, has refused to quit and has vowed to stagger on.

His reason? Despite Cabinet ministers Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood telling him the game is up no one has yet had the balls to put this lame duck out of his misery and shoot him.

Starmer's only argument is that there is a process to remove him - and no one has initiated it. The computer has so far said no, and a process has to be followed.

After two years in which this automaton has been on autopilot it was, supposedly, Starmer's big fightback.

You may ask where his defiance has been in the preceding 24 months. And you would be right to do so.

But even if he hangs on, two things are crystal clear: the country has zero confidence in him and he has lost the confidence of his party.

The upshot is drift and indecision. A death row pardon. A delay of the inevitable.

Starmer came to power promising change. There has been none and it's more of the same. It is why Labour haemorrhaged seats at last week's local elections.

And just look at what his acolytes think are priorities.

Starmer loyalists left Downing Street after an emergency Cabinet meeting laughably claiming he was showing "steadfast leadership".

Chief among them was Business Secretary Peter Kyle who said the PM was working hard on the big issues that matter to the public... before declaring that he was making a dash to Brussels, presumably to work hard on the reset with the EU that no one in the country wants.

Starmer's make or break speech was one in which he wallowed, played the victim, and sunk into a maudlin monologue of drivel.

He said a lot without saying anything.

It was introspection when the country wanted extrospection.

In many ways it was classic Starmer - underwhelming and delivered in a supervisory, administrative, controlling, and governing fashion. No emotion, no sincerity, and no urgency.

It certainly did nothing to win back disaffected voters or, indeed, shore up support inside the party he, and one says this loosely, leads.

So where now?

In Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, and Andy Burnham we are hardly talking about a pantheon of political giants.

At least 84 (at the time of writing) MPs now want him to go but, as yet, no big hitter has had the bottle to try and topple Starmer - North London's answer to the Supreme Leader of North Korea - so this sorry mess will continue until this feeble, weak, hamstrung, and paralysed PM is sent packing.

Starmer loyalists talk about his desire to serve the British people.

But the near approaching 100 Labour MPs who have publicly stated they want him gone should also bear that in mind.

A general election is now the only way the country Labour has failed can be saved.