What is so remarkable about the crisis of leadership convulsing the Labour government is that it is all about process and personality rather than policy. It was triggered by Catherine West, a backbench MP who wanted the cabinet to change the prime minister without a leadership election but who now says that, if there is a leadership election, she might vote to keep Sir Keir Starmer.
In her original interview, she barely gave a reason for ousting Sir Keir. She said: “We need to bring on the person who can really sell Labour values and sell our programme.” This implied that the party might not have done so badly in the English local elections last week if it simply had a better communicator at the helm.
