Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer, branding him a “lame duck” Prime Minister who has “lost control of the Government” after just one year in office.
Speaking to GB News, Whately declared that “Labour is in chaos” and accused the Prime Minister of being “unable to run the country.”
The Conservative MP explained: “The Government is just in chaos. The welfare system urgently needs reform.
“There’s actually a bigger problem here as well that we’re seeing, which is a fundamental problem with the Government’s management of the economy.
Helen Whately has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer branding him a “lame duck”
GB NEWS
“Rachel Reeves has killed growth with her tax rises. She said rightly that she needs to make savings on public spending.
“But we’ve seen her U-turn on one of her savings, which was the Winter Fuel Payment cut. We’re now seeing them U-turn on welfare, hardly making any savings there.
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“She’s going to have to come back in the autumn, either increasing borrowing or putting up taxes, which is terrible for the economy and against this, it’s also a terrible situation that the Prime Minister’s got himself into.
“He’s clearly lost control of the Government. He can’t run the country, and just one year into his time as Prime Minister, he’s essentially a lame duck Prime Minister.”
The comments come as the migrant crisis reaches unprecedented levels, with more than 20,000 people crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year, a 50 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
Discussing the migrant crossings she said: “I mean, it’s yet another failure of the Government, another example of them letting people down and breaking the promises they made in the run-up to the election.
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“They said they were going to smash the gangs and get on top of the small boat crossings. They clearly haven’t done that.
“The first thing they did publicly when they came into Government was to get rid of the deterrent we were putting in place to stop people from coming here. It’s clear that Keir Starmer has no plan to fix this problem.”
French authorities are set to introduce new powers allowing them to intercept dinghies within 300 metres of the shoreline, marking a shift from current rules that prevent intervention once boats enter the water.
However, border security experts have warned these measures will have minimal impact.
The migrant crisis has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 20,000 people crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year
PA
Lucy Moreton of the ISU trade union, representing Border Force staff, predicted migrants would simply switch to alternative methods.
“When one route closes, another opens,” Moreton said, suggesting increased use of yachts and lorries.
“We saw it with the crackdown on lorries that’s when small boats started, and we’ll see more methods emerge now.”