Copyright huffingtonpost
Keir Starmer has endured many miserable days since becoming prime minister on July 5 last year. But this may be his worst one yet. The PM endured a triple whammy of bad news as the dark clouds over his government show no sign of clearing. Shortly after a difficult session of prime minister’s questions, it was announced that Jim Gamble, the last remaining candidate to chair the government’s grooming gangs inquiry, had withdrawn from the process. In a letter to home secretary Shabana Mahmood, the former police officer said he did not have the confidence of some abuse survivors, and was therefore unsuitable for the role. It comes after four members of the the inquiry’s victims and survivors panel stood down, citing concerns about a “toxic environment”. Gamble appeared to take a swipe at Kemi Badenoch, who had focused on Labour’s inability to get the inquiry off the ground at PMQs. He said: “Victims and survivors, who have been let down so often in the past, deserve better than to be used as leverage for short-term gain by anyone.” Nevertheless, his announcement throws the inquiry into an even deeper crisis and intensifies the pressure on the government to finally find someone to lead it. Then, in a story which could have been lifted straight from The Thick Of It, The Guardian reported that an asylum seeker deported to France had returned to the UK in a small boat. “If I had felt that France was safe for me I would never have returned to the UK,” the man told the newspaper. Given the fanfare with which Starmer trumpeted his one-in-one-out immigration agreement with Emmanuel Macron as a way of stopping the boats, the man’s return to Britain is a huge embarrassment. In a further blow to No.10′s attempts to show voters that it is getting to grips with the small boats crisis, it was confirmed that more asylum seekers have crossed the Channel in 2025 so far than did so in the whole of 2024. It also means that more than 60,000 have arrived in the UK in the 15 months since Labour came to power. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “The floodgates are open, the borders are gone, and the British public are left picking up the pieces. “The Channel is now a conveyor belt for illegal immigration, and Keir Starmer is waving them through with taxpayer-funded hotel keys. “And today we learn that even when we deport them, they simply hop back on the next dinghy. Keir Starmer’s government has created the world’s first revolving-door deportation scheme. This is a national humiliation.” Mahmood tried to lay the blame at the Tories’ door, saying they “left our borders in crisis, and we are still living with the consequences”. She said: “We have detained and removed more than 35,000 who were here illegally. Our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back. “But it is clear we must go further and faster – removing more of those here illegally, and stopping migrants from making small boat crossings in the first place. “And I have been clear: I will do whatever it takes to restore order to our border.” With morale among Labour MPs getting worse by the day, and with Starmer’s future as PM increasingly in doubt, he needs his home secretary to quickly make good on that pledge. He can certainly ill-afford another day like this one.
