There is nothing but good news in Starmer's bizarre construction of his own gallows. The first is that he will be gone by February at the latest. The second is that the odds are even better if he scraps the budgeted 2p rise in income tax in order the save his skin.
It’s not often you see a Prime Minister commit hara-kiri (Japanese term for the ritual suicide by disembowelment) and do it in front of the political editor of The Guardian, Pippa Crerar.
His people had summoned Ms Crerar, a super-talented political journalist, to unload their anger about Streeting and to a lesser extent Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
No.10 was sick and tired of the Cabinet’s most prominent Blue Labour supporters going round the houses, saying destroying the manifesto by announcing the tax increase was unacceptable, and if it went ahead, they would challenge Starmer for the leadership.
Neither were they caring about the future of the Labour Government. Both are looking at the world from their own seats.
Streeting has a majority of around 500, and Mahmood 3,421. Both will be kicked out in any kind of swing.
Starmer’s fury reached boiling point on Monday morning when The Times ran a detailed two-page spread saying Streeting and Angela Rayner were being hawked around the Commons tea rooms as the dream team to rescue Labour from being fourth in the polls, at a quite shocking 16.
The call goes to Ms Crerar. Starmer’s brief her that they know what is going on, and they wanted to make it clear Starmer was going on and that he would fight all comers. Then they made a classic mistake – by naming names.
But Mr Streeting is a cheery soul, attractive in these difficult times, especially compared with the dull output of a human rights lawyer. He could bring a tear to a glass eye.
Streeting pointed out that No.10 has been watching too much Celebrity Traitors and that he had nothing to do with Shergar disappearing. The high ground had gone to the Secretary of State for Health.
Which then led to the bizarre scene in the Commons, just a matter of hours after attacking Streeting in the Guardian, of Starmer saying he had nothing but the highest regard for Streeting and what a great job he was doing.
So Starmer has lost. And he will pay dearly. After all, his Chancellor has been briefing for weeks that a dreadful Budget was on its way. Now he has a choice.
Stick with the 2p tax rise and he will not only face a challenge from Streeting but Andy Burnham, the King from across the Manchester Ship Canal and that dreadful Socialist retread Ed Miliband will be queuing up to take him on.
Keir Starmer's most costly mistake was to pin his future on a 2p coin toss. He is out - Kelvin MacKenzie
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Don’t go ahead with the 2p rise, and he looks weak. But he is used to looking weak. After all, he tried to get £5billion cut from the welfare bill (it will be £100billion in the blink of an eye) and that was defeated by his own side and any anger he had he kept to himself.
He’s a lawyer. He had all personality removed at birth.
So, balancing it all up, my bet is that he scraps the 2p and replaces it with cuts galore, which damage the middle classes. Always a matter of joy to Labour.
It won’t save him. The trap door is now open. I expect the Budget to go down like a cup of cold sick and that Labour’s polling position will fall to 12 per cent and the Greens to receive the riptide and move up to around 22 per cent.
All this will happen very quickly. So there is a possibility of him being forced out for an early Christmas present, but much more likely the Commons will return on January 5 next year, full of the fact that their career had three years to run and after it will be back to pushing a broom outside Morrisons.
Something will have to be done. And that will be Starmer’s lot. Despite what he says, I doubt he will fight. Humiliation is never attractive, while a courteous doff of the hat on exit will be well received.
The Labour nightmare will go on, but at least without the Channel chump at the helm. Thank God for that.
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