Angela Rayner’s rapid fall from high office must have brought to mind a parody of the pleas of Richard III during the battle of Bosworth Field: “A house, a house, my kingdom for a house”.
A mere £40,000, a bauble on a ministerial salary, brought her down. It was, she complained, simply an oversight in her complicated tax affairs. While already owning two properties, an additional one in Hove costing £800,000 can be considered a tad greedy, even for a housing minister. But her fall from grace has considerable significance. Given the increasing hatred towards the Starmer government, it is comparable to the displacement of the first loose pebble that precipitates an avalanche.
The fall of Angela Rayner
The first days of September, after the return from a dreadful summer, were supposed to be a reset for Starmer, desperate to dig himself out of a deep hole. Everything was put in place, including an attack on immigrants, to keep Farage from the gates and restore his standing.
But, as it is said, the best laid plans can go astray. Within days, the sleaze scandal surrounding Rayner was about to consume the government in what could potentially be the biggest crisis faced by Starmer since being elected a year ago.
The intense pressure was mounting. A report by the ethics watchdog, Sir Laurie Magnus, was being prepared about Rayner’s transgression, which was soon to be handed to the prime minister for due consideration. She had been deemed to have breached the ministerial code! Rather than face the sack, she fell on her sword and resigned. Starmer duly sent her a handwritten note of gratitude for her past services and her “painful” departure.
But the almighty dam had broken. Starmer had lost his deputy prime minister, housing minister and the deputy leader of the Labour Party in one fell swoop. He had no alternative but to brave the storm. A government reshuffle was called for and carried out at lightning speed.
The sap, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, was demoted to Justice Secretary, but given the grand title of Lord Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, fresh from attacking migrants and banning Palestine Action, was shifted to become Foreign Secretary – another chance to rub shoulders with the high and mighty. Shabana Mahmood replaced her, with a mandate for greater attacks on asylum seekers.
Along with Rachel Reeves, the three great offices of state are now held by women right-wingers. In addition, the lickspittle Lammy has become the UK’s first black deputy prime minister. And we have the first Muslim woman as home secretary. A gang of right-wing charlatans, for sure. But, all can agree, what a great leap forward for diversity! Surely this must signal the death of identity politics.
Other aspiring right-wing hacks have been shifted around like the furniture on the Titanic. This gaggle of careerists is a sight for sore eyes!
In the past, Rayner had faithfully defended the likes of Starmer and his policies, while brandishing her difficult upbringing and her working-class roots. While most of the Starmer brigade are made up of lawyers, solicitors and other petty bourgeois riff-raff, Rayner stood out as working class. She was used to placate any disgruntled Labour backbenchers. She, in effect, played the role that John Prescott did in relation to Blair, acting as a ‘left’ cover for his counter-revolution.
Of course, she left the ranks of the working class a while ago as she shimmied her way up the greasy pole, first as a trade union official and then a Labour MP. There is a very long history of a multitude of working-class careerists in the Labour movement who have risen in this way, usually to find themselves in the House of Lords, dressed in robes lined with ermine.
Government of crisis
Now, Rayner’s cover that shielded Starmer has been blown. It could not have come at a worse time. He would have loved to have kept her on, but that would have caused more trouble. After all, the government faces a damaging autumn statement in November, in which Reeves will need to announce massive cuts and tax rises.
Rayner’s resignation as the deputy leader of the Labour Party means that there will now be an internal election for the position. Given the febrile atmosphere within the party, this could turn out to be an embarrassment as all sorts of grumbles and complaints will surely be raised. The election will be an opportunity to sound off at the failures of last year and could turn unexpectedly into a bitterly fought contest. It will certainly put Starmer under pressure, as any replacement will be seen as a threat.
Ted Grant once explained that in the 1950s, during the economic upswing, whatever governments did made no real difference. Everything they did was right. They could do no wrong. In contrast, these days, with a deepening crisis, everything they do is going to be wrong. Such is the dialectic of history.
Starmer, as we predicted, is presiding over a government of crisis. His reputation has already been shredded as his popularity rating hits rock bottom. There will be no reversal. As one MP put it, “you can’t do social democracy on one percent growth.” Starmer’s austerity government will face an even greater backlash.
Any prospect of UK growth is for the birds, given the special crisis of British capitalism and as the crisis in the world economy, hit by tariffs, deteriorates.
The knives are already being sharpened. The arch-Blairite Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, has replaced Liz Kendall at Work and Pensions. This is preparation for savage cuts to welfare this autumn. But this, as with previous attempts, will face stiff opposition from Labour backbenchers, who, under pressure from their constituents, are terrified of losing their seats come the election. This scenario is a recipe for further division and conflict for Starmer, despite his thumping parliamentary majority.
Reeves, the Chancellor, is faced with delivering a budget on the lines of Snowden’s 1931 budget that wrecked the then minority Labour government. Today, under pressure from the ruling class, Starmer, a willing agent, is attempting to hold the line, but such is the seriousness of the crisis that there is talk of an IMF bailout being needed.
This reflects the utter bankruptcy of reformism, which tries to patch up the capitalist system at the expense of the working class. It is reformism without reforms, reformism with counter-reforms.
All this had added grist to the mill of Reform UK, which has been rising relentlessly in the polls. The Angela Rayner scandal has only added to this. Farage has gained from the widespread hatred towards the Starmer government and the lacklustre approach of the Tory Party and its new leader.
Tobogganing towards disaster
The growing anger in British society is palpable and can only get worse. This has opened up a massive political vacuum. Given the failure of the left so far, this has benefited Reform. If the new left party finally gets its act together, it could greatly benefit from this situation.
A new chapter is opening. The Starmer government is set to stagger from one crisis to another. It will experience a lingering death agony, as he attempts to cling to power. But nothing is going to prevent this. There is no way out on the basis of capitalism. The storms and stresses that have battered Britain over recent years are nothing compared to what is to come. Fantastic as it may seem, sleepy old Britain is heading for revolutionary convulsions, not seen for a hundred years or more.
On the scale of things, what is pertinent is not whether Farage will win the next election, but in the words of Leon Trotsky:
“Will a Communist Party be built in Britain in time with the strength and the links with the masses to be able to draw out at the right moment all the necessary practical conclusions from the sharpening crisis? It is in this question that Great Britain’s fate is today contained.”
No doubt cynics and sceptics will snigger and laugh at such a suggestion. But they are blind as ever. They refuse to see what is happening: that under capitalism British society is tobogganing towards disaster. History has shown that for millions, this realisation and its consequences will come much sooner than you think. Then, they will enter onto the stage of history, determined to take destiny into their own hands.
