SIR KEIR Starmer’s new appointments make his desperation clear for all to see.

By dragging in ex-PM Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to prop up his ailing leadership yesterday he has taken two huge steps backwards.

Sign up for The Jattvibe newsletter

Thank you!

Sir Keir Starmer’s new appointments make his desperation clear for all to see Credit: Steve Back

Former PM Gordon Brown belongs in the past and this feels like Starmer’s last throw of the dice Credit: AFP

There is no doubt the PM is in dire straits after the local election disaster, but his two Labour “big beasts” belong firmly in the past.

Harman, once known as “Hypocrite Hattie”, was deputy during Ed Miliband’s disastrous leadership.

She oversaw an election campaign in 2015 which saw the party crash to defeat with the fewest MPs in almost 30 years.

Gordon Brown is the man who brought Peter Mandelson back into frontline politics in 2008, when he made him deputy PM in all but name, before being booted out of No10 by the electorate two years later.

THE SUN SAYS
PM suffered elections bloodbath… voters are sick and tired of broken promises

THE SUN SAYS
The sight of cops at polling stations in Jewish areas is a grim new low

The irony that Starmer has turned to Brown over a crisis in part brought about by Mandelson is almost beyond belief.

Starmer’s last throw of the dice has nightmarish parallels with Brown’s own desperate decisions to bring back not just Mandelson but also Glenys Kinnock in 2009.

The PM is now effectively hostage to Brown and Harman, whose support he cannot afford to lose.

His speech on Monday will be yet another attempt at a reset in a Government which, astonishingly, is not even two years old.

But Starmer should remember that Brown was forced out of office as PM months after his own last-ditch reshuffle.

And, worryingly for British taxpayers, his departing Chief Secretary left a note saying: “I’m afraid there is no money.”

Migrant movie mugs

THE British taxpayer has pledged more than £1billion to France since 2023 in a bid to stem the flood of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

During the same period, 115,105 migrants have managed to arrive on our shores — and now more than 200,000 since 2018.

Now we learn that — flush with our border bunce — the French state has funded a film showing migrants how to exploit the law to come here.

In the film, the activist producer is seen telling migrants to “call 999” as soon as they reach the middle of the English Channel.

French public cash has been lavished on a movie the aim of which is to heap further strain on UK taxpayers and services — despite our huge no-strings attached handout.

The French have always been keen on a farce. And once again we are the fools.