While the Tory leadership candidates continue to tear each other to shreds, Labour has decided to join the party. Keir Starmer’s decision to fire the junior shadow transport minister Sam Tarry after he joined a picket line at Euston station and did a series of unauthorised TV interviews has shifted the spotlight firmly on to the opposition, and to the question of whether Starmer’s Labour is truly on the side of workers. One might have thought rail workers taking repeated strike action, grinding the country to a halt during a cost of living crisis, could backfire on a rudderless government. That’s not quite the way it’s worked out.
To make sense of how, during a toxic Tory leadership contest and an economic crisis, Labour party infighting has managed to become the story, I’ve spoken to the Guardian’s political correspondent Peter Walker. That’s after the headlines.
Five big stories
Politics | Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has endorsed Liz Truss for Conservative leader, following the first day of official hustings. Rishi Sunak has said he would back the creation of new grammar schools if he becomes prime minister.
Energy | Shell and Centrica have published record earnings of nearly £10bn and £1.3bn respectively. This comes a day after households were warned that average annual energy bills could triple from the level they were at the beginning of this year.
NHS | The NHS is closing the Tavistock clinic, the UK’s only dedicated gender identity clinic for children and young people. After three decades, it will be replaced with regional centres that will “ensure the holistic needs” of patients are fully met.
China-US | Xi Jinping has warned Joe Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a phone call amid tensions over the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s potential trip to the island next month. Biden said after the call that the US “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan strait”.
Commonwealth Games | With a 10-metre-tall raging bull, a union jack made from 72 cars, and an appearance by Malala Yousafzai, the Games kicked off last night with an unashamedly loud celebration of everything Birmingham.
In depth: Is Starmer on the right track?
Many were expecting to see Starmer’s big vision this summer – instead he’s once again on the back foot, fighting division within his own party. During his campaign to become leader, Starmer invoked images of unions and striking workers, and pledged to renationalise rail and water. Now he is embroiled in a row with the very people he claimed to want to represent. How did Starmer get here? And is this strategy enough to get him to No10?
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Is Labour’s position popular?
While polling does show that the public is not wildly keen on strikes, given the direct impact it has on their lives, the stance Starmer has taken has frustrated some within his party. Last month, Starmer told Labour frontbenchers not to join picket lines – but some of his shadow ministers were among 50 MPs who did so. Tensions have only continued to rise, with one union source claiming that up to 70 MPs could join picket lines today.
“It’s Starmer’s attempt to make Labour as electable as they possibly can be by moving away from stuff that scares the public,” Peter says. “If you’re a critic though it’s a little bit odd because it takes Labour away from what’s seen as its core values.”
Starmer has maintained that the reason he fired Tarry wasn’t because of his decision to join the picket, but to go and speak to the media about it without permission. Other frontbenchers who joined pickets at the previous strikes were merely asked to apologise. “I almost wonder if it’s going to go into a slightly strange ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. So long as they [frontbenchers] don’t make a fuss about it, we won’t do anything about it,” Peter says.
This isn’t likely to work if the strikes continue. “If you’re an MP with a much more popular strike in your local area and you’ve got very close links with workers and they say, ‘can you come down the picket line’, it’s going to be very hard for them to say no,” Peter says.
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Union problems
It’s no secret that union leaders have been unhappy with Starmer’s response to the strikes. Loudest among them has been Unite; its general secretary, Sharon Graham, has strongly condemned Starmer’s actions as “another insult to the trade union movement”. And Manuel Cortes of TSSA said that his union is “ashamed of the actions of the Labour party leadership and the anti-worker, anti-union message it is sending out”.
This is nothing new. Starmer’s relationship with the unions has been tense for a long time and the implications for the party aren’t just political: “There is this constant threat from quite a few unions of pulling the funding plug,” Peter says. Even centrist trade unions have questioned Starmer’s actions, meaning that he may be running out of allies outside the party. Without that funding there’s a big hole in the budget to fight the next general election.
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Internal divisions
In the insular world of Westminster this may seem like a huge deal, but Starmer’s stance hasn’t harmed Labour in the polls, yet.
While public opinion has been divided when it comes to the rail strikes (49% of people aged 18-24 said they supported strikes, compared with 32% of those aged 50-64), there is largely a consensus as to who’s to blame: two-thirds of people surveyed in a poll by Savanta ComRes thought that the government has not done enough to prevent the strikes from happening. And the attempts to paint this as Labour’s fault haven’t gained traction. “Some of the attacks from Liz Truss about union barons seems quite retro. It makes them feel that they’re speaking in the 70s or 80,” Peter says.
However, with more strikes likely, Starmer’s stance could continue to cause problems for Labour. Unions representing NHS staff and teachers have threatened action if wage depreciation isn’t addressed swiftly. “Within Labour, there’s a significant chance this could be a source of quite a lot of tension. And you might even lose a couple of shadow ministers and the ones who remain might be peeved,” Peter adds.
Starmer’s anti-picket stance has the potential to spark civil war in the Labour party. And until the leader sketches out a clearer vision of what he stands for, as opposed to what he stands against, it will be tough to pull the party back together.
What else we’ve been reading
There will be much more to come on Bernard Cribbins after his death yesterday, but Russell T Davies’s warm recollection of a fine actor who entertained generations of children in everything from the Railway Children to the Wombles and Jackanory is well worth reading, along with Mark Lawson’s lovely tribute. Toby Moses, head of newsletters
As the impacts of the climate emergency intensify, Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams write emphatically on why we need to respond urgently and where we can start. Nimo
The final episode of Neighbours is on Channel 5 today in the UK (beware spoilers from Australian friends). Author Rae Earl writes about the impact of the show: “We’d had their soaps before – the theme tune from Sons and Daughters was practically our soundtrack to skiving off school – but we’d never seen this Australia before”. Toby
As a West Midlander, I became very nostalgic reading this piece by Jon Bounds that takes you through 20 reasons to love Birmingham, the UK’s second city. Nimo
What’s it like to become a liberal in a conservative US family? Not fun if Jandra Sutton’s searing account is anything to go by: “The more I tried to share what I’d learned with my friends and family, the more they wrote me off as a lost cause.” Toby
Sport
F1 | Four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel has announced he is retiring at the end of the season. Vettel, who said the decision was “difficult”, leaves as one of the most successful drivers of all time.
The FA | The FA has handed former Crawley Town manager John Yems multiple Football Association charges. Yems has been accused of discriminatory behaviour and making offensive comments on at least 16 occasions.
Cricket | England lost by 58 runs against South Africa in the second T20 international. South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw scored an incomparable 96.
The front pages
The Guardian leads this morning with “Energy firms’ profit surge ‘insults working people’” and the front-page picture is the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Birmingham. “Profits in misery” – that’s the Mirror while the Financial Times says “Centrica urges more state help with fuel bills as profits soar”. “Sunak: I’ll kick 5,600 foreign criminals out of Britain” reports the Express. The i also leads on the Conservative leadership with “Tory contest leak inquiry grows amid toxic fallout” – it says the Cabinet Office is investigating as ministers fear inside information about policy is being “weaponised” by the competing sides. The Metro has “Vile texts of Sarah killer police pals” after officers appeared in court. Several titles lead on the one story today: “‘Unsafe’ NHS child gender clinic to be shut” – that’s the Daily Mail version, while the Times has “Child gender clinic forced to close over safety fears”. The Telegraph says it comes as the “NHS faces crackdown on puberty blockers”. The Sun has “Gagatha” – the so-called Wagatha Christie verdict is due today. The paper says the judge has withheld his decision from the warring parties “so they’re not tempted to leak it!”.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
Under the Banner of Heaven (Disney+)
Like the first episode of Twin Peaks, murder devastates a small town where murders hardly ever happen, especially when it becomes clear that it is not corrupt outsiders but Latter Day Saints who are responsible. – Stuart Jeffries
Music
Nina Nastasia – Riderless Horse
It’s impossible to separate Nastasia’s first album in 12 years from its tumultuous backstory. In January 2020, she left an abusive 25-year relationship with her manager. The following day he took his own life. Those events don’t so much cast a shadow over Riderless Horse as permeate every second of it. – Phil Mongredien
Film
Hit the Road
Great child acting is rare: so is great adult acting, and so is great directing of children and adults. But they all come together in this lovely, beautifully composed debut feature drenched in a subtle but urgent political meaning. – Peter Bradshaw
Podcast
Kabul Falling
British-Afghan journalist Nelufar Hedayat hosts an eight-part podcast featuring people who were affected as the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan. From the immersive sound of people trying to board a flight to a man who walked for eight hours in blistering heat to collect his son, the human stories are powerful. – Hannah Verdier
Today in Focus
Euro 2022 and the future of women’s football
England will play Germany in the Euro final at Wembley on Sunday. Suzy Wrack reports on the team’s success and what is needed to help their sport continue to grow.
Cartoon of the day | Artist Name
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Opera and cricket are two things that don’t often go together. But with Dalia, Garsington Opera have blended the two to tell the story of a displaced girl who finds purpose through the sport. Featuring professional singers along with local community and youth choirs, the cast of over 200 includes refugees and many appearing on the stage for the first time – but also finds space to include remote performances from the Al-Farah Choir in Damascus and the Amwaj Choir in Hebron. As 12-year-old Ella from Damascus says, Dalia is “the story of us, it’s our story, and the story must be sung”.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until Monday.
