Huge Starmer blow as ex-Cabinet Minister says he's 'lurching from crisis to crisis'

One of Keir Starmer's former cabinet ministers has issued a damning warning that the government "cannot continue lurching from crisis to crisis" after a chaotic week of u-turns. Louise Haigh, who served as Transport Secretary in Keir Starmer's initial government went public to voice many Labour MPs' frustrations after the PM's worst week yet.

Speaking on the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg show this morning, Ms Haigh said "serious lessons need to be learned" after this week's huge rebellion that forced a u-turn on welfare cuts. Ms Haigh said: "I think this week has demonstrated that there are serious issues with the political strategy and with the relationship with the wider parliamentary Labour Party. I'm really pleased the Prime Minister has acknowledged those issues and accepted that they exist, and that there is a need to address them and move on, and that serious lessons need to be learned."

Asked how she thinks Sir Keir got the issue 'so wrong', the top Labour MP said she believes there has been issues "with both the economic policy and political strategy".

"That's what drove so many colleagues to take this unprecedented step this week and were so frustrated.

"I don't think we can continue lurching from crisis to crisis like this every six months based on a future OBR prediction in five years time.

"The Bank of England governor said this week we should avoid overly interpreting that forecast and basing our economic policy on that. That's not a stable way to govern and it's not a way to make decisions on public spending."

The open challenge to the Prime Minister's authority came after a week that saw relations between No. 10 and MPs fracture.

Over 125 Labour MPs won a major victory over Sir Keir as they secured a huge climbdown on cuts to Personal Independence Payments, leaving Rachel Reeves even more pressure to hike taxes at the October Budget.

The Prime Minister also made a second U-turn, saying he regretted using the phrase 'island of strangers' during a hardline immigration speech earlier in the year.

Sir Keir claimed he had not read the speech properly ahead of delivering it, as he had been too preoccupied with the firebombing of his north London townhouse.

This morning the Prime Minister angrily dismissed suggestions that his chief of staff Morgan McSweeny has been running the show behind the scenes, describing the claim as "total bollocks".

He stood by his under-fire chief of staff, who has become a lightning rod for criticism in recent months, insisting he and Mr McSweeny have a "good working relationship".

Sir Keir told the Sunday Times: "All these decisions are my decisions and I take ownership of them."

"My rule of leadership is, when things go well you get the plaudits; when things don't go well you carry the can. I take responsibility for all the decisions made by this government. I do not talk about staff and I'd much prefer it if everybody else didn't."