The Devil Wears Prada 2 might have just saved Keir Starmer
Key Points
- Starmer dared cabinet to challenge him; nobody did
- Business Secretary Peter Kyle publicly backed the PM after the meeting
- Kyle is Wes Streeting's closest ally in politics
- The pair saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 together at the weekend
- 81 MPs must back a single rival candidate to trigger a contest; they have not
If you want to understand whether Prime Minister Keir Starmer survives the week, forget the polls and forget the briefings. Look at what film two cabinet ministers went to see at the weekend.
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle, the man Starmer moved into the trade brief in September’s reshuffle, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the cabinet’s worst-kept leader-in-waiting, are best friends in politics.
They saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 together at the weekend, according to the BBC’s chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman.
And this morning, after a cabinet meeting that all of Westminster had been treating as the possible end of Starmer’s premiership, it was Kyle who walked out of No. 10 and went straight for the cameras to back the Prime Minister.
“Steadfast leadership,” Kyle said. “Nothing has been triggered.”
That last bit matters more than it sounds. Labour’s leadership rules require 81 MPs to back a specific rival candidate before the process kicks off. Not 81 MPs grumbling.
Not 81 MPs telling lobby journalists Starmer is finished. 81 MPs naming a name. They have not done that. And Starmer reportedly told cabinet exactly that at the top of the meeting, all but daring the room to put up or shut up.
Nobody put up.
Streeting himself, the man whose name appears in every coup watch piece going, left No 10 to a wall of shouted questions from reporters, turned left, and walked down Downing Street without answering a single one. The great hope of the rebel caucus said precisely nothing on camera. The silence was the story.
Then came the procession. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said there had been “many statements of support” around the cabinet table.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the prime minister had her “full support”. Housing Secretary Steve Reed said the same on X, with the added jab that “this is not a game” and that “this instability has consequences for people’s lives”.
But Kyle is the one who counts. If Streeting’s closest political ally is in front of the cameras endorsing the man Streeting is meant to be plotting against, the plot is, at the very least, not happening today.
Which is why a film about a fashion magazine matters. Two cabinet ministers who are personally close, going to the cinema together at the weekend, then one of them publicly anchoring the prime minister 48 hours later, tells you the challenge has not crossed the threshold from briefing into action.
The rebels are still divided over who replaces Starmer, and that division is the only thing keeping him in the job.
Starmer’s bet is that they stay divided. Today, that bet paid.
Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, who has called on Starmer to step down, summed up the mood of those who want him gone: “He’s laid down the gauntlet, which is how he operates. He gets very stubborn. He doesn’t listen.”
Stubborn might just be enough for now.
