Keir Starmer's leadership is characterized by inconsistency and a lack of clear direction, as evidenced by the appointment and dismissal of senior officials based on conflicting priorities.

But what makes this sorry saga even sorrier is how utterly familiar it now feels. Robbins was appointed by Starmer and sacked by Starmer for doing something Starmer said he wanted but didn’t, and said he did want it only because someone else told him he should. Before Robbins’s sacking, Starmer had removed the Whitehall mandarin he had appointed cabinet secretary on the grounds that he had not been sufficiently radical at overhauling the way Whitehall mandarins operate. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2026/04/keir-starmer-is-all-alone

But what makes this sorry saga even sorrier is how utterly familiar it now feels. Robbins was appointed by Starmer and sacked by Starmer for doing something Starmer said he wanted but didn’t, and said he did want it only because someone else told him he should. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab... Keir Starmer is all alone