The growing concern among allies of the Prime Minister comes as the public response to the chaos inside No 10 ranges from “frustration to outrage”.
The political warnings come after a nightmare week for the PM (Image: Getty)
Labour insiders have told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that alarm bells are ringing inside No 10 over a deepening political crisis.
The warning to Sir Keir Starmer comes as the Labour Party conference gets underway today, with the stakes high for the British Prime Minister.
One Labour insider close to the PM told the BBC political host that “the mis-steps are alarming, it adds to a sense that we are naïve”. In a blunt four-word warning to the PM, a senior figure said the government has “lost their grip already.”
This comes amid a nightmare month for the PM, who has faced questions over his political judgment and whether he is still in control of No 10. This week, Sir Keir has had to defend himself after accepting more than £100,000 in political gifts, freebies and donations for clothes. There are also persistent rumours of infighting among his close advisors.
Labour insiders have told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that alarm bells are ringing inside No 10 (Image: BBC)
The scandal has spread to his wife, Victoria, the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner
In an article for the BBC, Ms Kuenssberg highlighted three focus groups carried out by More in Common on Thursday which made for grim readings for the incumbent party ahead of their conference in Liverpool.
The response from the members of the public ranged from “disappointment to frustration to outrage”.
One of the attendees, Kerry in Birmingham, was furious about the scandal this week, particularly after the Labour attack on Boris Johnson during his time as PM. Kerry said: “I do feel like they’re [being] a bit of a hypocrite and they never shut up about Boris’s wallpaper, did they? We never heard the end of Boris’s wallpaper.”
Another furious voter, Rebecca, told the focus group that the government was sending the wrong signals after accepting hundreds of thousands in gifts and freebies and cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Rebecca said: “We’ve taken money from pensioners that is just lower than low really? Isn’t it? So emotive? I’d rather him put 1% more on my tax or whatever than see my parents not being able to put [on] the heat. It just feels so wrong.”
One Labour voter in Rochdale, Ayyaz, told the focus group that those in power were out-of-touch, adding: “Starmer has been given gifts of £100,000 or something like that. So these big politicians, they don’t have a clue. They are on salaries of £180,000 or whatever it is. They do not have an idea of what the common man or the common woman lives by.”
Sir Keir has been told to ‘get a grip’ on the chaos engulfing his office (Image: Getty)
Mr Starmer’s salary is around £167,000 – slightly less than his chief of staff, Sue Gray, who earns £170,000 a year.
This morning, in an interview on the BBC, Shadow Commons leader Chris Philp says that PM Sir Keir accepting free clothes for his wife is “weird and inappropriate” and that donation rules “should be looked at”.
He said there’s “no justification” for accepting luxury clothes for Mr Starmer’s wife or for Angela Rayner to accept luxury apartments in Manhattan during a personal holiday.
