Starmer narrowly saved (323 votes), but his time at the helm of Labor seems to have run out
Pyrrhic victory for the Labor Party at the by-election of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire. Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer cheered on the success of Labor candidate Kim Leadbeater: her eventual failure would almost certainly have meant the resignation of the former British Crown Prosecutor. In the days before the by-election, the Times reported that his deputy, Angela Rayner, was ready to challenge him for the leadership of the party, while a Sky News poll showed that 69 per cent of Labor members would have wanted the mayor of the party. Great Manchester, Andy Burnham, in his place as leader.
Sir Keir narrowly escaped. The bookmakers had favored the Tory candidate, Ryan Stephenson, councilor of Leeds, and in fact Leadbeater prevailed by just 323 votes. As of December 2019, Labor had over 3,000 votes ahead in the constituency . A no small part in Batley's election was played by George Galloway of the Workers Party: the former pro-Saddam Labor Labor worker at the time of the Iraq war in 2003 ranked third receiving 8,000 votes and campaigned very aggressive against Starmer trying to attract the Islamic electorate of the constituency.
Be that as it may, the supplementary round ended with 3 surprises: the Tories won Hartlepool for the first time but were defeated by the LibDems at Chesham and Amersham, where they had over 13,000 votes ahead. Finally, Batley and Spen, which was supposed to be Labor's grave gave Starmer oxygen instead.
The Labor leader, however, finds himself in front of a divided party and there is a feeling that in the congress at the end of September – we think, finally, live and not online – the knots will come to a head. In recent days, Starmer has called a Blairite, Matthew Doyle, to take care of the party's communication. Then he moved his chief of staff , Morgan McSweeney, to put him in charge of election campaigns in place of Baroness Chapman, accused of defeat in the Hartlepool supplementary. Defeat that had led to a reshuffle in the Labor shadow cabinet .
Finally, there is the Unite Congress, the largest Labor-affiliated union and its main contributor. Should an internal left candidate prevail in the movement, it would be problems for Sir Keir. If once elected many predicted his future as prime minister, today very few foresee a long-term future at the helm of Labor for Starmer. Batley and Spen's 323 extra votes may have saved his leadership in the short term but the party remains in turmoil.
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