STEPHEN POLLARD: Voters are now playthings of a party drunk on self-interest

Published: 22:12, 16 May 2026 | Updated: 00:29, 17 May 2026 Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad, according to the proverb. The gods appear to have been working overtime in recent days, as our governing class has gone stark, staring mad – plunging the country into political and economic chaos for no reason other than that Labour MPs have taken fright at the local election results. Last week Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary, egged on, as The Mail on Sunday reveals today, by his political tutor Peter Mandelson, despite denials from the Prince of Darkness. And for what? What have these two schemers and their party rivals achieved? Streeting’s bid to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister stalled on the runway, yet the fallout has left many of us exasperated at our elected members whose contempt for the public knows no bounds. Yes, Starmer is a dud, but No 10 has had plenty of them in the past – it’s hardly a crime, more an occupational hazard. In those cases, the machinery of state grinds on, Parliament does its best to limit the damage and the public puts the poor dolt out of his or her misery when the General Election comes round. Extra-curricular defenest-rations should be a once in a generation rarity, not the two-year rule. Yet Labour has become drunk on its self-interest.  We voters are mere playthings of a political class that cloaks itself in duty and public service while servicing only its own position and self-importance.  Britain's former Health Secretary Wes Streeting delivers a keynote address at the Progress annual conference 2026 A class that is eating itself alive – and destroying what little faith remains in politics as a profession and as a vehicle for change. Even those of us who didn’t vote for Labour in 2024 took some heart because at least the instability would end, becalmed by the party’s sizeable majority.  Some chance. We reckoned without the mindset of Labour MPs. So here the country is, wrestling with 30-year bond yields (the interest rate the government pays on long-term borrowing) at a 28-year high.  Being laughed at by the Italians, the Belgians and all those other countries whom we used to mock for their political bedlam. Is it any wonder then that support for the main parties has collapsed? People are disillusioned with a political class that has served up crisis after crisis.  Our exasperation is hardly helped by a recent run of stories that have a questionable whiff, including the multi-million-pound payment to Reform leader Nigel Farage from a crypto billionaire, Angela Rayner’s self-proclaimed exoneration for short-changing the taxman and the apparent confusion Zack Polanski has as to where he lives when it comes to paying his council tax. Our patience is hanging by a thread. And it will snap if Labour’s new Prime Minister, whoever he or she may be, does not hold a General Election. It will not wash to hide behind the constitutional fig leaf that we vote for local MPs, not the Prime Minister, as the French and Americans do for their presidents. If a new leader, with a new agenda, is thrust upon the public, then a new mandate is needed.  Only when our politicians learn that their too-clever-by-half coups have consequences will this cycle of bloodletting end. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. Don't tell David Lammy! Insiders say Gordon Brown is nicknamed the 'real deputy PM' by Keir Starmer's inner circle