Unexpected Boost For Starmer As Tory Peer Admits He Would Vote Labour

Posted on 26/12/2025 by Boris Clair

A Conservative peer has offered up a surprise boost for Keir Starmer as he would still vote for Labour despite the government’s difficult time in office.

Lord Rose, the chairman of Asda, told LBC that there is widespread frustration with Labour – but suggested that’s still better than the alternatives.

“We’re in a situation now where I think many people in this country would be disappointed with the government they have elected,” Rose told LBC.

“We’ve now got a situation where I don’t believe the Conservatives can make a recovery in time for the next election.

“So let’s assume it’s the election after that.

“You are now going to find yourself in a very difficult situation in 2027, ’28, ’29, where if Labour don’t start delivering some [economic] growth, the Conservatives haven’t recovered in time, and you’ve got the other option – what are you going to vote for?

“Are you going to vote for Reform or are you going to vote for a second government?”

He said: “I would vote for another Labour government, but I would want some change in the meantime.”

Asked why he would vote for another round of Labour, he said: “It’s a question of degrees of pain, isn’t it?

“If I can’t have a resurgent Conservative Party, and they’ve got a lot of work to do to make themselves re-electable – or I’ve got the alternative, which, frankly, is supping with the devil.”

Asked what Kemi Badenoch has to do to secure the Tory peer’s vote again, he said: “She’s got to be doing more of what she’s begun now, I think, but I just think, it does, in all these things, require time, and I’m not sure time is on their side.”

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‘Why would you vote Labour?’
‘It’s a question of degrees of pain.’

Conservative peer Lord Rose explains why he would vote against his party in future elections. pic.twitter.com/yKdhbM6eIY

— LBC (@LBC) December 25, 2025

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‘Why would you vote Labour?’
‘It’s a question of degrees of pain.’

Conservative peer Lord Rose explains why he would vote against his party in future elections. pic.twitter.com/yKdhbM6eIY

— LBC (@LBC) December 25, 2025

Wes Streeting Insists He Is Happy As Health Secretary – But Adds A Cheeky Afterthought

Posted on 14/11/2025 by Boris Clair

Wes Streeting brushed off suggestions he wanted to oust Keir Starmer as prime minister today when speaking to LBC – but added in a quick quip while he was at it.

It comes after multiple reports citing senior Labour sources claimed this week that the health secretary was thought to be on manoeuvres and looking to oust the prime minister – while No.10 officials insisted Starmer would not be going anywhere anytime soon.

Streeting instantly denied the reports, accusing senior figures of trying to “kneecap” him and claimed there was a “toxic culture” within No.10.

Starmer later apologised to his cabinet minister over the phone, and insisted he has never authorised any attacks on his ministers.

Speaking on an LBC phone-in on Friday morning, the health secretary seemed to suggest everything was well between him and his boss.

He claimed he and Starmer are still in the “same boat” over the leadership row, joking: “The season finale of the Traitors is over.

“I think the prime minister and I are both in the same boat here of being extremely frustrated because this is a total distraction.”

Streeting also said he had confidence in Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who has been criticised amid the row.

When asked if he wanted to be prime minister “one day”, Streeting said: “I’m very happy to be doing the job I’m currently doing.”

LBC presenter Nick Ferrari then pointed to a clip from 2018 when Streeting – then a backbencher – predicted that he would be prime minister within a decade.

He smiled, and replied: “It will be my sense of humour that will ultimately do for me one day.

“But If you don’t back yourself, who will? That’s my advice to the kids in my constituency.”

Streeting also spoke out about the way the union jack has become a source of tension in the UK.

“We normally fly our flag in moments of national celebration,” he said, adding that he was “proud” of it.

“It does get hijacked by racists from time to time and I think our response to that should be to reclaim it,” he continued.

“I think we’ve got a level of racism, overt racism, in this country, a kind we haven’t seen for years.

“I’ve been an elected councillor or MP for the last 15 years. I have not had racism come up in my constituency as often as it has in recent weeks.

“People not just saying, ‘I’m really worried about racism,’ people describing being abused, spat at, shoved, giving racist abuse.

“I think we’ve got a sort of 70s, 80s, style racism which has emerged and we’ve got to put it back in its box.

“The government’s got a role to play, but all of us have got a role to play.”

Labour Accused Of Being ‘Worse Than Tories’ Amid New ‘Trumpian’ Clampdown On Protest

Posted on 05/10/2025 by Boris Clair

Labour are being accused of being “worse than the Tories” with the new government crackdown on protests.

The Home Office announced on Sunday that it would be granting police forces new powers to put conditions on repeat demonstrations.

That means if a protest has taken place at the same site for weeks on end and caused “repeated disorder”, officers could force organisers to hold the event elsewhere.

The Home Office said anyone who breaches these conditions risk arrest and prosecution.

It comes after the Met Police arrested nearly 500 people at protest against the proscription of the Palestine Action group in London on Saturday.

The march went ahead despite calls from the government and the police for the protests to be postponed out of respect for Thursday’s deadly synagogue attack in Manchester where two people were killed.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said current legislation is also being reviewed to make sure it is being applied fully.

Mahmood said: “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear.”

She added: “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.

“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.”

Speaking on LBC, the home secretary defended the new measures and insisted it was a good use of police time.

She said: “I have no truck with this argument that suggest that police resources are better deployed elsewhere, enabling mass criminality by people who have a political point to make.”

LBC presenter Lewis Goodall said that human rights organisations are starting to accuse Britain of “showing authoritarian tendency” by arresting people for doing nothing more than “holding up placard”.

She replied: “What Britain is doing is making sure the law of our land is maintained.

“It is not ‘holding up a placard’, and I really must pick you up on that, Lewis, in holding up a placard, you are breaking the law because you are supporting a proscribed organisation.”

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“Mass criminality? Holding up a placard…\"

Shabana Mahmood denies that the government is showing signs of ‘authoritarianism’ as they continue to clamp down on peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/FzByKvbPVb

— LBC (@LBC) October 5, 2025

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“Mass criminality? Holding up a placard…”

Shabana Mahmood denies that the government is showing signs of ‘authoritarianism’ as they continue to clamp down on peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/FzByKvbPVb

— LBC (@LBC) October 5, 2025

Not many others felt the same way online though.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, who used to be Labour leader, described the crackdown as a “disgraceful assault on the right to protest”.

Many other critics compared it to the Conservatives’ enhancement of police powers during their time in office, and claimed Labour were “giving the incoming Reform government everything they could wish for”.

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A disgraceful assault on the right to protest.

The UK government is complicit in genocide. Anyone who understands the meaning of these words knows full well why we continue to speak out.

See you on 11 October for the largest demonstration for Palestine in British history. https://t.co/5ut9TV5wIy

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 5, 2025

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A disgraceful assault on the right to protest.

The UK government is complicit in genocide. Anyone who understands the meaning of these words knows full well why we continue to speak out.

See you on 11 October for the largest demonstration for Palestine in British history. https://t.co/5ut9TV5wIy

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 5, 2025

Nigel Farage has accused Keir Starmer of being “completely obsessed with me” in a new jibe at the government.

His remarks come after technology secretary Peter Kyle hit back at Reform UK for saying they would repeal the Online Safety Act – and alleged Farage would have been on the same side as Jimmy Savile, the late prolific sexual predator.

The Reform UK leader has subsequently called for an apology from the government over the claim.

Speaking about the incident again on LBC today, he said it was all “absolutely appalling” – and suggested Labour were “completely obsessed” with him.

The MP for Clacton-on-Sea said: “I thought [the Savile comment] was incredibly badly judged.”

He pointed out that Labour was outraged when ex-Tory prime minister Boris Johnson attacked Starmer in 2022 by saying he failed to prosecute Savile when he was the director of public prosecutions – although there was no evidence to support Johnson’s claim at the time.

Still, Farage said: “The levels of moral indignation that we got from Labour on this, ‘how dare Johnson do this’ – and yet they use this Savile analogy.”

The LBC presenter said: “The papers are all reporting it was authorised by No.10, that line. Can you believe that?”

Farage paused, then replied: “I think they’re losing the plot in every way, yes, and I think we’re at a place where, the PM in particular, and others, they’ve become completely obsessed with me.”

Labour have repeatedly pivoted to treating Reform UK as their main competitors instead of the Tories, who are the second largest party in parliament and the official opposition.

After Reform secured hundreds of council seats in May’s local elections, Labour’s political director Claire Reynolds told the party’s MPs: “Reform voters are not necessarily right wing. They are our people and they are pissed off.”

Starmer himself told his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney that they should be targeting Reform UK as the “real opposition” that same month.

And the party has been consistently leading in the polls, even securing a record nine-point lead over Labour in June according to Ipsos.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – who is trying to set up his own party –even told Novara Media: “The Labour government is here to appease Reform.”

But insiders shrugged off Farage’s remark, suggesting what he really meant was he does not like scrutiny.

The Labour Party has declined to comment.