Labour red wall chief tells Keir Starmer to stop ‘pussyfooting around’ and take leaf from Donald Trump’s playbook
Labour Red Wall chief Jo White has called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to stop “pussyfooting around” and make policy decisions as decisively as Donald Trump.
The chairman of Labour’s Red Wall group of MPs urged the Prime Minister to “take a leaf” out of the US President’s book by following his instincts and issuing executive orders.
“This is leadership from the front,” she said.
White’s criticism comes after Labour suffered a string of defeats to Reform UK in Thursday’s local elections, including losing the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
The chairman of Labour’s Red Wall group of MPs urged the Prime Minister to “take a leaf” out of the US President’s book
PA/REUTERS
“After a good kicking at elections, the usual and heavily anticipated response from the ruling party is that we are listening. But this isn’t going to wash. Labour needs a reset,” White wrote in The Telegraph.
It marks the first major public declaration of disaffection within Labour’s own ranks since the results.
White urged Starmer to announce policies such as a national grooming gangs inquiry, a crackdown on immigration and investment in left-behind industrial heartlands.
She pointed to Trump’s approach, noting that since his return to the White House, he has signed hundreds of executive orders leading to drastic policy shifts on immigration, the economy and diversity schemes.
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White called for immediate Telford-style inquiries in towns where “grooming gangs are running rings round the authorities”.
She advocated for digital ID cards as “the only way to stop illegal immigration”.
Another proposal was writing off Covid debts for public services, comparing it to Gordon Brown’s quantitative easing during the banking crisis, calling it a potential “game-changer”.
White reserved her strongest criticism for the government’s decision to strip more than 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments.
She compared the policy to the poll tax that contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s downfall, saying: “The Winter Fuel Allowance has now become our poll tax problem. We have lost the pensioner vote because of this; I hear the anger.”
She called for “immediately raising the threshold to the higher income tax level”.
White founded the Red Wall Caucus of around 35 Labour backbenchers shortly after entering the Commons as the MP for Bassetlaw last year.
The group represents traditionally safe Labour seats in the North and Midlands that swung to the Tories under Boris Johnson in 2019.
White called for immediate Telford-style inquiries in towns where “grooming gangs are running rings round the authorities”
JO WHITE WEBSITE
These same constituencies are now being targeted by Reform UK under Nigel Farage.
Nigel Farage’s party made significant gains in Thursday’s local elections, winning control of councils in traditional Labour strongholds.
Reform UK took control of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Doncaster and Durham councils – all counties where support for Labour has historically been very strong.
This shift mirrors the “reindustrialise Britain” message at the heart of Reform’s campaign, with Farage going further than the Government on issues like nationalising British Steel.
White concluded by drawing a parallel to Harold Wilson’s premiership in 1964, when Britain was in a “ruinous state” with an £800million deficit, noting that a by-election disaster led Wilson to reset his approach.
“Wilson went on to win a landslide less than a year later,” she said. “Sir Keir Starmer can take lessons from his approach.”