KEIR Starmer clearly means business.
There is no doubt about that after Tuesday night.
Seven hard-Left MPs backed an amendment to increase child benefits.
They were suspended in minutes from his Parliamentary party as Starmer showed who’s boss.
The tough-tackling Arsenal fan took a leaf out of his hero Patrick Vieira’s playbook — and their feet didn’t touch the ground.
He has no time for hard-Left trouble-makers or self-indulgent virtue-signallers more worried about making themselves feel good than the difficult choices needed to solve real problems.
And unlike lots of people who have spent their lives in Westminster, he does not think politics is a game.
Government is about tough decisions, not the number of likes you get on social media.
He is serious, competent and determined not to be side-tracked.
My only quibble is why let John McDonnell and his gang stand as candidates in the first place.
Three of the rebels were in Jeremy Corbyn’s top team.
I’d have booted them out long ago, but if he teaches them a lesson, encourages the others and keeps the rest of his team in line then I suppose it’s fair enough.
He is displaying the single-minded ruthlessness every successful Prime Minister needs.
MPs must be in no doubt who is in charge.
And the public want to see a strong leader not afraid to lay down the law.
Look how the Tories became a complete shambles as they rowed over the EU, immigration and so much else.
So bitter and divided they went through five PMs in six years.
Labour was split under Corbyn too.
Sensible MPs battled to replace the crazy old commie with a moderate leader and mainstream policies.
Some, like me, left the party when that did not work.
Keir Starmer had a ringside seat as Labour and then the Tories ripped themselves apart.
He is determined that won’t happen to his government.
First, unlike Corbyn and the crazy gang, he is anchoring Labour in the centre ground, where the public are and where elections are won and lost.
This is why his government’s first announcements have been on bread-and-butter issues like building more homes, getting the economy moving and sorting out the NHS.
Issues the public care about.
And second, this week showed he will put up with no nonsense from the loony Left.
They have tried to destabilise every sensible leader Labour ever had.
Some leaders tried to pander and compromise to keep their party united.
Even Tony Blair thought they were an irrelevant and harmless sideshow.
They can not be dismissed as irrelevant after running the Labour Party for five years under Corbyn.
And the extremism and racism that poisoned the party shows the hard Left are not harmless either.
The truth is that Labour only wins with a moderate leader setting out sensible policies to appeal to the broad mass of the British people.
Clement Attlee’s 1945 government set up the NHS and the welfare state and delivered full employment, but was also the driving force behind Nato, ensured Britain had nuclear weapons and expelled members of the hard Left.
Leftie whingers can moan from the sidelines as much as they like, but Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall will get more kids out of poverty than Corbyn and McDonnell and the rest of them ever did.
The Cabinet is full of people like Angela Rayner, Pat McFadden, Bridget Phillipson or Wes Streeting, who grew up in poverty and are determined to give kids from poor backgrounds a good start in life and the chance to get on.
They know that the best way to do that is to support young parents, improve schools, boost skills and sort out the NHS to get the record 2.8million people out of work due to long-term illness back to work.
Almost 10million people — more than one in five of the working age — are not in employment or even looking for a job.
That is terrible for them and a disaster for the taxpayer because sickness benefits are set to rise from £65billion this year to £90billion in 2028.
New research by Blair-era health secretary Alan Milburn shows seven out of ten of people classed as unable to work but want a job.
Even though the vast majority are claiming benefits, only a tiny minority are getting any support to help them find work.
Sorting that out could mean an extra 4.5million people at work.
That could help curb immigration, cut the welfare bill, free up funds for schools, hospitals and defence and reduce child poverty as well.
If Starmer and his team manage that, they can look forward to a long period in government — and the hard Left will be consigned to the impotent irrelevance they deserve.
