The blocking of Any Burnham by the National Executive Committee from standing for a parliamentary seat in Manchester is, quite frankly, another stupid decision in a line of many stupid decisions by Starmer, his acolytes and Morgan McSweeney. The reason given is that an election for a mayor to replace Burnham will cost too much and is thus unnecessary. The only person happy about this decision is Wes Streeting. It also seems that Labour MPs across the party are also unhappy about the decision taken by 10 out of the 40 NEC members. What is clear is that this decision will give Reform a fighting chance of winning the by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton. If Reform wins, that is the end of Starmer, long before the array of elections in May. Burnham could have guaranteed Starmer a win in the by-election as his favourable rating in Manchester are +20%. Starmer’s favourable ratings, as reported by YouGov, are -57%, just above Liz Truss’s when she was Prime Minister for 49 days. This is a fatal error of political judgment by Starmer, a man, as I have said before, who has no political antennae. I believe the metaphorical “ Ides of March” is coming soon, and the quicker the better. It also appears that the 10 members of the NEC, along with Starmer and McSweeney, are members of a circular firing squad.
The political messaging from Number 10 is all over the place, and Starmer acts like a Prime Minister with a majority of 14 as opposed to 148. The current Labour leadership is still failing to lay out a clear vision for the country, and if a few hard truths are acknowledged and explained, the electorate will listen. Issues that remain outstanding with no clear road map include tax, privatisation of water, legislation on controlling social media, defence expenditure, and building closer relations with our EU partners across a range of issues from defence, technology and the economy. Also, the electorate needs to understand how to make the country more resilient in terms of energy security, food security, biosecurity, and what growth looks like in a multipolar world. Starmer panders to the US tech companies, some of whose market cap is greater than the size of the UK’s annual GDP. He talks about the £150 billion private investment in AI but says nothing about the future of work. All of this should be underpinned by the principle of social cohesion, a concept that our Prime Minister, to date, has failed to grasp.
The reality is that Starmer’s days are numbered, and I will finish by saying that Keir may be a good man, but he is a lousy Prime Minister and has surrounded himself with political mediocrity. Some commentators have said that blocking Burnham shows Starmer’s brutal political authority. The consensus amongst Labour voters is that it shows his brutal political ineptitude.
Suneil Sharma
26th January 2026
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