I've seen reports that Starmer plans to put Rayner in a shadow cabinet position, possibly as Shadow Commons' leader to square up to JRM, but if this is what's going to happen, Starmer needs to hurry up and do it to calm things down again.
You're asking all the wrong questions. You should be asking why Starmer isn't falling on his sword after the spectacular own goal he's scored by losing ground to a ruling party in full self-destructive mode. Instead of sacking, erm "reshuffling" he should be accepting responsibility and stepping aside. However this won't happen whilst some party supporters continue to deflect from the problem at the heart of Labour.
this is a very silly take. Try again. I suspect you want Magic Grandpa and his clown army back. That went well.
I'll have a pint of what you're drinking, that's got to to be strong stuff if you think that Starmer should hang around to lose even more support...
Who would you prefer to see installed as leader in that case? In the long view, I see no reason for Starmer to go - the Tories are having a vaccine bounce and in the intervening time, he managed to get Labour to 40% in the polls. Over the coming three years, what reason is there that fortunes will not change for the better? The answer is that there is no reason.
Why? The likes of Jonathan Ashworth, Anneliese Dodds, Rachel Reeves and Lisa Nandy have not been scapegoated. I would have thought that being away from local parties would protect her?
Those people are either not left wingers, or are prominent remainers.
Quite honestly, I don't know. There isn't anyone who really stands out for me. Luckily that isn't a choice I have to make. However Starmer has to go if Labour are to ever become a viable opposition. Right now the Tories are laughing their socks off, and are getting too easy a ride.
Because a loss for an opposition party at a local election might be down to local issues, a disorganised campaign, a popular government or completely stupid opposition policies. Provided she avoids the latter, she will be OK, she has been elected Deputy Leader of the Party, she should stand in for Starmer at PMQs (if she doesn't it will not look good). That is a role which cannot be taken away from her; Starmer has enough on his plate with the Corbynistas, he can do without any more enemies.
The nonsense optics came from virtually all newspaper sites and news outlets saying she had been sacked in bold headlines. I'm not sure what that has to do with Corbyistas unless they now run the BBC News, Telegraph, Times et cetera.
Fox got more votes than Binface sadly; but Fox was in turn beaten by the guy who wants to make Freddos cost 5p so it isn't all bad news. UKIPPY Gammons showed poorly.
These elections aren't actually that bad outside of a rather concentrated area of the northeast. Two mayors have gone to Labour, the position in Wales is better and the position in Scotland is only slightly worse, even with our own toxic leader only being replaced two months before polling day. There's really no reason for Labour to buy into the dire conclusions the press had already drawn before the votes were even cast. In addition, most of the blame still lies with a combination of the previous toxic leadership and the difficulty of changing anybody's mind or mounting an effective campaign in Covid times.
I agree, while Labour have done really badly, they have also won quite a few seats from the Tories, as well as doing well in some mayoral elections. Yet again, the media fails to be in any way nuanced. Just looking at the headlines, you’d think Labour are now completely gone and Angela Raynor has been ‘sacked’ when in reality she hasn’t and is still deputy leader.
I notice there was also an attempt to post the day as a catastrophe for the Lib-Dems, which is looking very premature right now since they've only lost 0.5% of their councillors, and actually gained control of a council
The thing is, none of the places where Labour have done relatively well are places where they need to win in order to win the next general election. In battlegrounds like the West Midlands, Derbyshire, North West (outside GM), the North East Labour have made heavy losses. Piling on the votes in Bristol, Manchester, London and Liverpool won't help them in 2024.
I think you may be a bit premature about Anneliese Dodds not being scapegoated (unfairly imo) with Rachel Reeves tipped to replace her. Ashworth inspires less confidence in me than most of them: Hancock should be down and, more importantly, OUT by now, but gets more criticism from Jeremy Hunt, often coded, than from Labour so-called top brass. Lisa Nandy is not responsible for the current situation and her election as leader would have meant the Redwall problem had been addressed, even if it meant little in terms of the end result at Hartlepool. Starmer inviting Mandelson to find the town on the map again was an absolute insult to the population, and not something I can imagine Nandy or Rayner doing in a million years.
Fox still got a low enough proportion to lose his £10,000 deposit (just).
This particular lot of Conservatives have been in power for 16 very unusual months, and I don't think people are all that inclined to view the current lot as the same government as the last lot. You might hope for a bit of a bounce, but I don't think not getting one is a spectacularly bad result, particularly in a local election where Covid controls have made it really difficult to get local messages out.
This all day long. Some people, stoked by the press, love to lose their head. In another sense, a lot of capital has been poured in to the Tories from traditional Labour seats which really means they need to deliver something meaningful by 2024. If the next GE comes along and no positive changes have been achieved, the goodwill the Tories have built up will evaporate.
Mostly you are right. But the Bristol comment needs a bit more explanation. Bristol itself absolutely (though it looks possible the council may go Green based on the results current being announced!), but the area around Bristol (South Gloucestershire & Bath and North East Somerset) is typically Tory or Lib Dem so for Labour to win the WECA mayorship is a pretty big deal. Especially considering North East Somerst is Rees-Moggs Westminster seat.