Operation SOS

Keir Starmer loyalists are already plotting their propaganda strategy for when Labour take a historic walloping in the May elections

Labour are facing a historic electoral defeat in the May elections.

Everyone knows it. Even Keir Starmer’s inner circle, who are now plotting Operation Save Our Starmer.

The polling numbers are so dire that members of his inner circle have privately admitted that it’s going to be a "bloodbath" and that Starmer is "the most unpopular Prime Minister ever".

They know it’s going to be catastrophic, so they’ve come up with a deeply cynical "three-pronged strategy" to try and keep him in power, even if Labour suffer their worst election results ever in Scotland, Wales, and the local elections.

Deny responsibility

According to the anonymous source who told The Guardian about their plans, the first prong of their strategy will to be to "minimise the salience of the results as a judgement on the government".

Apparently they’re going to try to argue that people are angry with politicians in general, and that poor old Starmer was just caught in the crossfire, despite having done so well so far!

It’s hard to imagine anyone buying this nonsense. Not the public; not the hundreds of Labour politicians set to lose their seats; and not the Labour MPs who will see how doomed they are at the next general election if nothing changes.

Rely on Trump

The second prong will be to take advantage of Donald Trump’s insane attacks on Iran, and claim that it’s the wrong time to hold a Labour leadership contest.

It’s deeply cynical to use Trump and Netanyahu’s insanity in the Middle East to try and save Starmer’s skin, and a risky strategy too, because it relies on Trump continuing the attacks for at least another month.

Labour’s strategy of claiming to want de-escalation is already brass-necked, given that they’re allowing the US to use British RAF bases to launch attacks on Iran, but claiming to want de-escalation is even more brazen if they’re privately hoping that the attacks continue, so that they can use the instability to insist that Starmer must stay.

Distract immediately

According to the source, the plan is to "distract immediately with a new king’s speech and a potential cabinet reshuffle".

Will the plebs be placated by the king’s scheduled appearance in parliament, and a few token ministerial movements?

It seems highly unlikely.

Additional strategies

Aside from the three main strategies of deny, rely, and distract, the anonymous sources also gave away several other components of Operation Save Our Starmer.

They’re hoping to rush out the next tranche of Mandelson-Epstein files before the elections, so that the scandal that should already have taken Starmer down isn’t reignited in the furious aftermath of Labour’s looming electoral hammering.

They’re hoping that Labour MPs’ fury at the electoral bloodbath will be dissipated by the fact that parliament will be prorogued for the elections, meaning that they’re less likely to get together and organise a leadership challenge.

They’re also hoping that Starmer’s potential successors like Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are too cowardly to pull the trigger, because the first one to stick the knife in rarely ends up wearing the crown.

The Labour right seem extremely confident that there will be no wave of co-ordinated resignations, like when the Labour right used the Brexit referendum result as an excuse to launch their spectacularly failed 2016 Anyone But Corbyn Coup.

It’s interesting to compare the Labour right’s plan to dress the Iran conflict up as a major international issue that would render a leadership contest "totally self-indulgent", with their decision to launch their utterly self-indulgent Corbyn coup in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum result, despite the need to highlight David Cameron’s recklessly negligent failure to develop a contingency plan, just in case he lost his gamble with the nations future.

It seems they think major political crises are only useful in stopping leadership challenges, when it’s one of their guys facing the potential challenge.

One "senior strategist" has claimed that Labour has basically done enough already, and that they just have to "remind people that much of what we have set in motion will start to bear fruit".

Even if it were true that Labour has done so much to improve living standards in the long-term, it’s not going to count for much if they’re privately praying for the global instability and economic shockwaves to continue, so they can use Trump and Netanyahu’s Iran chaos as an excuse to keep their lame duck Prime Minister in Downing Street.

Conclusion

It’s hard to say whether this nonsense will be enough to deter Labour MPs from seeking to replace the man who is so bad that he’s turned a massive landslide victory into a desperate fight for political survival, in under two years.

Labour MPs have done nothing so far to demonstrate that they’ve got the backbone to to make the necessary changes before it’s too late.

If they want the collapse in support to stop, the logical thing would be to get rid of the man who caused it by implementing a load of policies that traditional Labour voters would hate, then telling them to "leave if you don’t like it".

Time is running out for Labour to demonstrate that its first priority is improving the living standards of ordinary people, and it’s beyond obvious that they’ll fail to do this if Starmer and Reeves continue setting the agenda.

If Labour MPs are gullible enough to fall for these ludicrous efforts to save Starmer’s skin, they’ll only have themselves to blame when they lose their own seats at the next election.