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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
John McDonnell

Poorly led, strategically inept and shorn of democracy. Now I truly fear for this Labour government

Keir Starmer delivering a statement in the House of Commons, London, 26 June 2025
Keir Starmer delivering a statement in the House of Commons, London, 26 June 2025. Photograph: House of Commons/Reuters

The welfare bill has gone through, but what is on the minds of most Labour MPs and supporters is how did we get into this appalling mess over disability benefits? A key factor has been the immense lack of judgment of the party’s real decision-makers, the team in the leader’s office, fuelled by their overweening arrogance. The egos of the young men cloistering Keir Starmer have clearly been inflated by the multitude of articles written by sycophantic commentators desperate to secure access to the new regime.

However, the seeds of this debacle were sown by the Treasury’s capture of the incoming government, enabling officials to bring back the same old austerity agenda of benefit cuts that they developed for George Osborne.

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