LABOUR's backroom officials are fighting "like rats in a sack" over who will succeed Keir Starmer as leader, a party veteran has said.
Suspended Labour MP John McDonnell warned in an opinion piece for The Guardian that unless party members, unions and MPs “take back control”, Labour risks not only losing power but may “lose a party”.
The former shadow chancellor took aim at policies such as not abolishing the two-child limit and the “brutal” welfare cuts, adding that the UK Government is guilty of “callousness and political incompetence”.
The Labour veteran, who joined the party five decades ago, said: “[Keir Starmer] has instigated a series of policies that fly like a knife to the heart of what we believed the Labour Party above all else stood for when we joined the party.
“When in the first king’s speech the Starmer leadership didn’t just fail to address the major cause of child poverty, the two-child benefit cap, but demanded Labour MPs vote against its abolition, the first signs of the callousness and political incompetence of the decision-making of the new administration were put on display.”
He added: “The distasteful sight of Labour ministers accepting gifts and tickets and donations from the rich and corporate carpet-baggers whilst cutting the benefits of the poorest in our society was justifiably nauseating for many of our supporters.
“To then follow this up with the debacle of the winter fuel allowance and the brutal launch of an attack on benefits of disabled people has disillusioned our supporters on a scale not seen before in the recent history of our party."
He also took aim at Starmer’s inner circle, saying: “What we are now witnessing is a panicked half-hearted policy retreat whilst the backroom boys, Morgan McSweeney in the leader’s office and Nick Parrot in the deputy leader’s office, fight like rats in a sack for the succession to Keir Starmer.”
McDonnell then suggested change was needed: “Unless the party members, our affiliated unions and members of the parliamentary Labour party stand up and assert themselves to take back control of our party, in the next period, in the Labour Party’s history we may not just lose a government, we could lose a party.”
McDonnell was one of seven Labour MPs who had the whip stripped from them after they rebelled against the Government by backing a motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
