Labour is wallowing in indecision, failure and general hopelessness, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

You turn if you want to.
The lady’s not for turning.

This, unfortunately, is not the view of the current government, which seems to think its job is to prepare for the next headline by seeing quite how many U-turns it can execute in a London taxi in the shortest possible time.

Let’s look at the current Chancellor of the Exchequer today — sticking boldly, of course, to her course.

The delay.
Plans to increase the minimum wage for 18- to 20-year-olds, supposedly to allow employers a better chance to hire more people.

We already have incentives to hire young people: the apprenticeship rate of the minimum wage, and no National Insurance contributions for the youngest workers. But we do recognise there are challenges.

Or rather — as well.

Because the number of U-turns is going up and up. You could probably sing them to The Twelve Days of Christmas if you had a musical turn of mind. But let’s go through them.

Digital ID cards.
Business rates for pubs.
Inheritance tax on farmers.
The two-child benefit cap.
Income tax thresholds.
Workers’ day-one rights.
WASPI women’s compensation — where they lied.
Welfare and disability benefit cuts.
Grooming gangs — a national inquiry, which they said was a “far-right” thing.
Winter fuel payments.
Trans rights definitions.
National Insurance.
Measurements of national debt.
Delayed elections across 30 local authorities — which they now have the gall to blame on the local authorities themselves.

And now, a refusal to rule out a minimum wage boost.

U-turn.

This is absolutely extraordinary — not least when a leading member of the Cabinet, someone waiting in the wings to catch the ball should it come out of the scrum, said this. Mr Streeting, treating the NHS:

“We have an initiative called G.R.A.F.T. — Get It Right First Time.”

That should be the government’s New Year’s resolution for 2026.

Let’s try to get it right first time.

Wouldn’t it be miraculous if they could? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could actually have a little bit of proper government?

Because that is the real problem. The current government didn’t know what it wanted to do when it came in, hasn’t worked out what it wants to do now, and therefore staggers day to day, crisis to crisis, to the detriment of the country — and then shies away from the blame.

And this is constitutionally important.

There are two principles of Cabinet government on which our constitution rests — on which we are governed. One is collective responsibility. The other is ministerial responsibility.

Collective responsibility has already gone for Burton.

Just today, we had the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, criticising the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, claiming it wasn’t up to him that the two-child cap had changed. They are squabbling with each other. There is no united Cabinet view.

That makes holding them to account more difficult, because they simply say: “It wasn’t me — it was my colleague over there. Blame him.”

That undermines democratic accountability.

So does the loss of ministerial responsibility.

And then there is the Prime Minister himself — Sir Keir Starmer. In case he hasn’t noticed — and sometimes I think he hasn’t — he must think he’s just the cat who’s wandered into Downing Street, confusing himself with whatever the cat is called.

Because whenever something goes wrong, it’s not his fault.

But the art of all good leadership is simple: the credit goes to subordinates; the blame rests with the boss. All good bosses know this.

Yet he blamed a speechwriter for saying the country was an “island of strangers”. He blames councils for cancelling local elections — which must be his fault, the government’s fault, because councils have no power to cancel elections unless the government gives it to them.

Again and again, they make U-turns.

Again and again, they blame others.

And no government is taking place.

This matters — because what the country needs is economic growth. To get that, we need clear policy. We need to know where we are going. We need a government that is responsive to, and accountable to, the electorate — not one that wallows in indecision, failure, and general hopelessness.