Earlier this year, US defence secretary Pete Hesgeth drew widespread criticism after it was revealed that his secret Signal chat had a journalist in it. As a result of this massive blunder, Hesgeth inadvertently shared details of his illegal plans to bomb Yemen. All in all, then, it was a massive embarrassment which would have seen the man fired if he’d been in any other American administration. In the UK, people weren’t massively surprised by all this, because we have a tendency to view Americans as uncouth chimpanzee people; something which is especially true of the second Trump government. This makes it all the more embarrassing that Starmer’s Labour have done pretty much exactly the same thing as ‘whisky Pete‘ Hesgeth:
EXCLUSIVE: Number 10 accidentally leaked confidential internal emails discussing the Huntingdon train stabbing to The National https://t.co/cMRzwrV4T4
— The National (@ScotNational) November 3, 2025
Every day Starmer is looking more and more like Labour’s Boris Johnson.
Leaky Labour
The leak happened on Sunday 2 November, the day after the knife attack on a train in Huntingdon. As the National explained, Downing Street CC’d one of their journalists into an email chain. They suspect this happened because said journalist shared the same name as a Home Office employee, and while this would be an understandable mistake if you or I made it, it becomes a bit more unforgivable when it’s literally the most powerful department in the country.
It seems like there should be some option to prevent repliers from adding non-governmental emails to this sort of thing, doesn’t there? In fact, having worked in the private sector, I know I’ve received warnings when I’ve emailed people outside my company – is that not turned on at Downing Street?
The National noted that the email thread included employees from the Home Office, Department for Transport, Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the police. They added that the emails:
also included information not yet released to the public or press at the time – including that the man who was arrested “had no contact” with Prevent, the UK Government counter-terrorism programme, and that he was “not known” to security services.
Reportedly, Number 10 “are taking appropriate steps following the leak”. In Starmer’s case, he should maybe step out of Number 10 and just keep walking.
Digital ID
If you’ve followed the Digital ID debate, you’ll be unsurprised to see that this latest debacle has done little to instil confidence in Labour:
But let’s have digital ID @Keir_Starmer says. Get fucked. https://t.co/j6dFzDUDpY
— DJ Paul Gardiner (@PaulGardinerDJ) November 4, 2025
And they want you to give them all your personal details for a digital ID?
I trust them about as far as I could throw a wet mattress up a spiral staircase. https://t.co/qlIsHQZhxv
— Jimmy Salford (@1Fubar) November 4, 2025
As we reported the day before Labour leaked its own internal emails, MP David Davis said:
What will happen when this system comes into effect is that the entire population’s entire data will be open to malevolent actors – foreign nations, ransomware criminals, malevolent hackers and even their own personal or political enemies.
As a result, this will be worse than the Horizon [Post Office] scandal.
Even Davis didn’t imagine politicians would just email private information out, though.
To some extent, we all accept a degree of risk around data, but we do so because we receive something in return (e.g. the NHS holds our medical records, but they don’t feed us something we’re allergic to in return). So far, Starmer’s Labour have struggled to explain what’s in it for us when it comes to Digital ID.
At first, they claimed it would stop illegal migration and illegal work, but those arguments quickly fell apart. Now the best they can do are fire out tweets like the following – tweets which voters instantly community note into oblivion:
It’s frustrating having to rummage around in a drawer, looking for an old electricity bill just to open a new bank account.
Digital ID will make our lives easier. pic.twitter.com/RLApUdNiM6
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 23, 2025
Digital ID has the potential to transform our day-to-day lives. pic.twitter.com/Mp0MV28VMi
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 23, 2025
The grownups are back in charge
When Starmer first took over the Labour leadership, it became a meme that political commentators would describe him as ‘forensic’. At this point, he’s had so many scandals, u-turns, and gaffes that even his biggest fanboys couldn’t call him that without laughing.
We’re not sure what Starmer’s next moves are, but we’ll let you know as soon as he CC’s us into the email.
Featured image via Number 10 (Flickr)
