Number 10 has briefed yet another excuse for Starmer’s shambolic handling of the Mandelson saga. According to Patrick Maguire’s new piece in the Times, the reason he insisted he had “full confidence” in Mandelson at PMQs was because he couldn’t bring himself to do the same for Reeves months earlier. Keen to learn a lesson from the episode with his blubbering Chancellor, he pushed ahead with his full-throttled backing of Mandy…
“…This failure to respond clearly to a binary question — do you have confidence in the chancellor or not? — was interpreted by the markets as equivocation. They did not take it well.
Determined not to make that mistake again, Starmer’s PMQs team concluded, some reluctantly, that there was only one possible answer. The prime minister, still awaiting Mandelson’s replies to the Foreign Office, was yet to make a decision on his future. To offer anything but a yes would only oxygenate the speculation and derail yet another day.”
That’ll help put this story to bed. Surely?
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