On a human level, I have sympathy for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his family, but he's an incapable leader
Fylde’s Conservative MP Andrew Snowden has released a statement after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation.
After the Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation earlier today, Andrew Snowden MP expressed sympathy for him and his family, but branded him an ‘incapable leader.’
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir this morning said that his party had asked “whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election”. He said: “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”
Defending his record, he pledged to give his successor “my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago”.
In a statement, Fylde MP Andrew Snowden said: "For months, this has felt inevitable. The last few weeks have been like watching a slow motion car crash, with a Labour Party increasingly turning on itself and a Prime Minister losing the confidence of his own MPs.
“At a human level, I have sympathy for him and his family. When his voice broke as he spoke about his wife and children, it was a reminder that behind every politician is a human being who shares the pressures and sacrifices that public life brings. Politics is at its best when we debate ideas and policies, not when we dehumanise those we disagree with.
"But politically, the situation Keir Starmer finds himself in is entirely of his own making. The problem is that both he and this Labour Government have repeatedly made the wrong choices. He may well be a 'well meaning and decent man', but he has been a dreadful Prime Minister and an incapable leader.
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"Whether it is higher taxes through the National Insurance hike, scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Family Farm Tax, backing away from welfare reform, appointing Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, or failing to give our Armed Forces the investment they need, Labour has spent two years lurching from one mistake to the next.
"The bigger question now is who and what comes next. It looks increasingly likely that Andy Burnham will be Labour's next leader, but there are huge questions to be answered. Will he stick to Labour's manifesto commitments or abandon them? And how will he pay for the promises he is going to make?
"Labour's problems do not begin and end with Keir Starmer. Changing the leader does not change the values, policies and priorities that have brought this failing Labour Government to this point."