WHISPERS FROM WHITEHALL: KNIVES OUT IN NO 10

Dear Diary from Whitehall, rumours swirl through Westminster…

February gloom has settled over SW1, and it is not just the weather darkening moods inside Downing Street. The real chill is political, with Sir Keir Starmer facing a growing chorus of muttering from his own side as aides quietly sketch out plans for what comes next.

In the wake of the blow up involving Peter Mandelson, senior figures are said to be holding increasingly frank conversations about Starmer’s future, including whether a reshuffle, or even a wholesale reset, will be needed after the May elections. The mood, according to Westminster gossips, is very jittery indeed.

The immediate focus is reportedly on calming a fractious Parliamentary Labour Party and its soft left flank. No 10 insiders are said to be pricing in a move to haul Angela Rayner back into the centre of gravity. Starmer offered an olive branch in public earlier this week, but privately aides admit two things could scupper the courtship, the timetable of HM Revenue and Customs investigations into her tax affairs, and whether Rayner actually fancies returning to the front line at all. As has already been pointed out in Westminster gossip circles, she is unlikely to sign up without cast iron guarantees about her post Starmer prospects.

Faith in Labour’s newer backbench intake, many of whom were catapulted into office in 2024, is also said to be ebbing away. Older intakes were never favourites of the Starmer machine either, leaving one obvious escape route, importing talent from the outside. A Downing Street source claims discussions are under way about “refreshing” the ranks with more peers in the mould of Patrick Vallance, figures who can supposedly barge in and “get stuff done.” Even the Cabinet Office is in the firing line, with chatter about moving on the top team, or, more dramatically, the Cabinet Secretary himself.

Then comes the really juicy stuff, Cabinet gossip.

Justice Secretary David Lammy is said to be skating on very thin ice, with one senior government source sneering that he is “singularly unable to grip” his department and unwilling to confront what they describe as a woeful senior civil service set up. A special adviser clear out is already under way, with long serving aide Ben Judah gone and other exits discussed. Friends of Lammy float the idea that he might cling on to the Deputy Prime Minister role instead, while across Whitehall his taste for plush hotels and long haul trips is becoming an increasingly well worn joke.

But the most explosive whispers centre on the Treasury. In hushed corners of SW1, officials are said to joke about a lever marked “eject Rachel Reeves.” Pulling it would be seismic, which of course only makes the speculation louder.

Before the last Budget, spin from both No 10 and the Treasury tried to fuse Starmer and Reeves together. Now that moment has passed, the knives appear to be inching out. One Downing Street source claims there is “increasing speculation that Reeves has become moveable now we’re beyond the Budget.” Another Labour insider was blunter, asking who the PLP blames most often for the early shambles, and answering in a single word, Reeves. A third source says she looks weakened, pointing to her absence from the China trip and a string of bruising internal battles over farming, business rates, and a host of other policies.

Even trickier, the gossips say, is what to do about Ed Miliband. Demoting him would invite open rebellion, and aides privately concede he would cause far too much trouble to be quietly sidelined. Some in No 10 have long speculated that Ed fancies a crack at the red box himself, a suspicion that is doing nothing to steady already twitchy nerves.

Across Westminster, rivals are watching with barely concealed glee as stories of Labour infighting multiply, while journalists note that the sniping is no longer confined to the opposition or the press, but is now bubbling up from within Labour’s own increasingly unsettled ranks.

For now, the plotting is conducted in WhatsApp groups and behind closed doors. But as February grinds on and the election clock ticks louder, Whitehall’s favourite question is becoming harder to dodge, just how much longer can Sir Keir keep the lid on it all.

Jack Lions