Keir Starmer's 'dead cat' - and the rat his Westminster colleagues smell on ID cards

Labour's latest wheeze to look tough on illegal migration is to turn the UK into a 'papers please' nation, but Westminster veterans smell a rat. Keir Starmer announced plans for a digital identity card that will have to be produced by workers when they start a new job. It would deter illegal migrants from crossing the Channel because they would not be able to earn, according to the Prime Minister.

But the Government has no answers about when it will be introduced, what it would do to force people to take them up or how it would stop a surge in the black market. Such a system goes against British sensibilities and will be deeply controversial.

So controversial, in fact, that Tories believe the announcement is nothing more than a "dead cat", which means throwing something shocking into the news cycle to deflect attention away from what is really going on.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is among those who questioned the announcement. She was quick to brand it a "gimmick" that will not stop the boats, adding: "It's a desperate distraction from their scandals."

And blimey, those scandals are mounting up.

Fresh off the back of Angela Rayner's complicated tax affairs and Lord Mandelson's repugnant friendship with prolific paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is the murky donations row that goes right to the heart of Starmer's Downing Street operation.

Morgan McSweeney ignored warnings from the elections watchdog that he had to declare nearly £740,000 for Labour Together, the campaign group he ran that helped Starmer become party leader.

Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake has accused Starmer's chief of staff of hiding the money and wants the police to investigate.

The Electoral Commission said it is not reopening its investigation into the case but McSweeney's days are numbered. Hollinrake said: "The Conservatives uncovered clear evidence of McSweeney's industrial scale cover up of a slush fund used to install Keir Starmer as Labour Leader.

Despite the denials of Labour and 'Nothing to See Here' Keir, it is clear that the Prime Minister's chief of staff still has very serious questions to answer.

"This is not over, we will continue to reveal more evidence, and continue to push for a full investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into Keir Starmer."

The constant briefings from McSweeney's own side about him do not bode well. Backroom boys who become the story have outlived their usefulness so it is only a matter of time before he leaves. But once he departs, Starmer will be even more rudderless than he is now.

The Prime Minister has always been insistent that there is no such thing as Starmerism so you take away the man behind him who does have some vision and there is not much left.

On Sunday Starmer will again try to rally his disaffected party at Labour's autumn conference in Liverpool.

After just 14 months in power, the PM will address his party as polls show Labour would lose two thirds of its seats if there was a general election now. To make matters worse, he faces members while Liverpudlian/Mancunian Andy Burnham is going out of his way to undermine his leader.

The "King of the North", who ditched the Armani suits for a cagoule when he switched life as a Cabinet minister for being mayor of Greater Manchester, has been unrestrained over the last few weeks in his assessments on Starmer's premiership.

Mr Burnham said it was up to Labour MPs to decide if they needed a new leader, claiming some had privately been "in touch with me" to see if he would run.

Just for good measure, London's mayor Sadiq Khan then waded in to say: "Andy's raising legitimate concerns he has, and, you know, he's entitled to do so."

The in-fighting got very messy on Thursday when Starmer lashed out Burnham's economic credibility, suggesting he would be like former Tory PM Liz Truss and insisting he would not allow Labour to "inflict that harm" on the nation. So with all that going on, is it any wonder that Starmer would rather there was a big row about digital ID cards?

The Prime Minister announced the plan in a speech on Friday instead of waiting until he takes to the conference stage in a few days time.

Baroness Hazarika, a loyal Labour peer and Times Radio presenter, said it was "unusual to do this in the run up to conference". She admitted: "It's going to be a difficult conference, this Andy Burnham versus Keir Starmer."

The Labour leader will be trying to wrestle the agenda back, she added. But the Prime Minister is now so politically weak his enemies have him in a headlock and there is no sign he can break free.