Things could be worse.
It’s likely that the main challenger to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and therefore Prime Minister could well be Angela Rayner. Her support comes from the Left and it is seemingly quite strong support whereas the Labour Right made up of what’s left of Old Labour and the Blue Labour crew are allegedly riven with disagreements and do not have a strong candidate to push forward as leader.
We are in somewhat uncharted political waters here as although the Tories have changed leader via a leadership challenge whilst in government, Labour has not. If Rayner campaigns Left but governs in a more sensible manner then it might not be too bad,awful of course but not completely disastrous. She may do this because if she wins she will see the full extent of the nation’s fiscal and other troubles, If she does see the extent of our problems and governs accordingly then we might not see much change coming from any Rayner administration because she will have to govern based on a very poor financial position. Things will still be bad, it’s Labour after all, but it might not be fatal for the nation. Angela Rayner if she becomes PM can’t throw money at the Left’s pet causes if there’s no money to do so. However if she campaigns left and also governs from the Left life in Britain could bet exceptionally worse than it already is.
A left wing Rayner administration that spends like a drunken sailor on shore leave despite Britain’s dire fiscal position could spook the bond markets and international investors and therefore further damage Britain’s fiscal situation. The promoters of damaging identity politics policies if given full reign in a Rayner led government will further divide Briton from Briton and possibly create unwanted reactions on the street. It goes without saying that a left wing government led by Rayner will further damage things like freedom of speech which in turn will also damage Britain’s image with the current US administration and also create great difficulty for Britons if they wish to speak out about Britain’s current political and social problems.
It is to be hoped that Angela Rayner, who is at present the front runner for the leadership position, being a savvy political operator will understand that what the bulk of the Labour Party membership might want is both destructive and costly and will, if she wins, sideline as much as possible the more lunatic parts of this particular current in the Labour Party. Having been in Cabinet until her resignation over her tax affairs Rayner would have been privy to discussions about Britain’s finances and will surely realise that Britain is now in such a terrible state financially that old style tax and spend is not an option any more. I can only hope that this realisation by Rayner of how bad things are will temper her policies. If she doesn’t then all that is bad now in the UK will get infinitely worse than it is already.
Starmer and the now departed Number Ten Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney whilst being awful did at least keep the far left in Labour under some sort of check. Without that brake on the power of Labour’s left all manner of terrible policies with regards to the economy, migration and society could be imposed. It remains to be seen if Rayner wins whether she will recognise the dangers to the country of the far left and govern accordingly or whether she becomes a mere tool of Labour’s destructive and extreme far left?