"Unless working people like those I am so proud to represent feel change and unless we in this chamber demonstrate humility and honesty and act with integrity and with respect, they have no reason to believe in democracy, he said. Seventeen months on, Starmer is engulfed in a scandal that threatens to undermine those principles and could yet prove terminal for his premiership,"
"Simons, a Cabinet Office minister, is a staunch ally of the prime minister and his now-departed chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. A woman walks past a shop with a campaign leaflet for local MP Josh Simons in the window. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian A former director of the pro-Starmer thinktank Labour Together, Simons won his seat in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, under the McSweeney-masterminded landslide in 2024. But the mood among his constituents on Monday was bleak as the Mandelson fallout continued in Westminster."
"You see it all day on the news: Keir Starmer doesn't do anything but U-turns and couldn't make a decision if one slapped him in the face. Winterburn, 42, said she felt McSweeney was a scapegoat and that the scandal was further evidence that they don't think the rules apply to them. It's time for Reform, she said. We've tried all the others and they've all been crap."
In September 2024 Josh Simons pledged that working people must feel change and see humility, honesty, integrity and respect to believe in democracy. Seventeen months later Keir Starmer is engulfed in a scandal after the resignation of two senior No 10 figures connected to Morgan McSweeney. Simons, a Cabinet Office minister and former Labour Together director, is a close ally of McSweeney and won Makerfield in the 2024 landslide. Constituents expressed anger and talk of switching to Reform. Simons faces scrutiny over commissioning an investigative report into journalists probing Labour Together funding and denies investigating journalists.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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