While Sir Keir clings on to his leadership, next to nothing is being done to fix UK’s broken borders or flailing economy

Labouring on 

AMID frenzied scenes at Westminster, it briefly looked like Sir Keir Starmer would not make it to the end of yesterday. 

His latest director of communications (the FOURTH in 18 months) quit, less than 24 hours after his chief of staff had been forced to resign. 

And the Labour Party’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, became the most senior figure yet to say Sir Keir himself must go. 

But, like Monty Python’s Black Knight, the Prime Minister and his team declared it just a flesh wound. Downing Street said the Prime Minister was “determined, upbeat and confident”. 

And the Cabinet was ordered on to social media to declare its undying loyalty, presumably with fingers crossed behind ministerial backs. 

Nobody is fooled. 

The self-inflicted wounds — of which the Mandelson-Epstein scandal is just the latest — are, in reality, much too deep for Sir Keir to survive. 

All that remains to discover is when he will go, and who will take his place? 

Will it be after the Gorton and Denton by-election? When WhatsApps and emails between ministers and Peter Mandelson are released? After a near-certain wipeout in May’s local elections? 

Yesterday, the Pound dipped and the cost of servicing the Government’s ballooning borrowing rose again amid the kind of chaos Labour pledged to end. 

The markets are looking at Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband, in particular, and fear an economically ruinous lurch to the Left. 

Yet while Sir Keir clings on, next to nothing is being done to fix Britain’s broken borders, flailing economy and clapped-out public services. 

What an utter shambles. 

Time’s sup 

AMID the mayhem in Number Ten, it’s all gone quiet next door at Number 11. 

Rachel Reeves has been keeping her head down since her awful second Budget. Certainly, she won’t be welcomed in many of Britain’s pubs. 

According to a new report, the Chancellor’s business rates fiasco has left one in eight boozers on the brink of insolvency. 

Against which her grand bailout for boozers — amounting to £30 a week for the average pub — looks woefully inadequate. 

A reminder to Labour: politicians blamed for closing much-loved locals should expect to have time called on their own careers not long after. 

Court disaster 

FIRST ministers want to ban juries. 

Now the Government is doing its best to keep justice under wraps by scrapping a vital service for letting the public know about important trials. 

Ministers trample on our freedoms at their peril.