Will Keir Starmer resign on Monday?
Andy Burnham’s big win in the Makerfield by-election has brought Keir Starmer to the brink, and there is now an expectation that the Prime Minister will announce his departure on Monday. On Sky News this morning, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said that the Prime Minister had been ‘calm’ and ‘thoughtful’ in a conversation on Friday, and had only asked about the country, rather than ‘self-interest’.
Trevor Phillips asked if the prime minister thought it was in the interest of the country for him to stand down. Kyle said Starmer was ‘making time to reflect on the political realities… that he finds himself in’. Phillips noted that over 100 Labour MPs have called on Starmer to leave and asked Kyle for his personal opinion. Kyle said he was focused on upholding the ‘authority’ of the government, and claimed that the country’s growth figures show that Labour are delivering.
Foreign Secretary tells Starmer to stand down
Trevor Phillips spoke to his panel after hearing breaking news that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had told the Prime Minister to stand down, an hour after Peter Kyle gave his interview. Andrew Marr noted that Cooper has been one of those most loyal to Starmer, and suggested that the momentum was now unstoppable for Starmer. Phillips asked The Spectator’s Michael Gove how these conversations play out. Gove said it is a combination of ‘organisation and chaos’, where the Prime Minister will arrange to see individuals whilst at the same time those in the cabinet are ‘furiously WhatsApping and calling each other’. Gove pointed out that Cooper is close to former defence secretary John Healey, and may have realised Starmer had to go when Healey resigned.
Mel Stride: ‘It’s been an absolute calamity on the economic front’
Over on GB News, Camilla Tominey spoke to shadow chancellor Mel Stride about the likely departure of Chancellor Rachel Reeves as well as Keir Starmer. Stride argued that Reeves had been a ‘disaster’ for the country, and blamed Labour’s high taxes for the country’s high unemployment and low growth. He said no ‘shuffling of the chairs’ at the top of the party would change Labour’s fundamental instincts. Tominey suggested that there would be a big difference between Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting as chancellor. Stride claimed that no one at Labour has the ‘backbone’ to tackle spiralling welfare costs, and predicted that the markets would react badly to Andy Burnham becoming prime minister.
Mel Stride: ‘We are becoming increasingly competitive’
Laura Kuenssberg also spoke to Mel Stride about the recent by-election results, which saw the Conservatives win in Aberdeen South, but get only 2 per cent of the vote in Makerfield. Stride focused on the positives, noting that Aberdeen South was the first by-election win for the Tories in Scotland since 1967. He argued that Makerfield has always been a Labour stronghold, and claimed that Andy Burham’s win showed the ‘weakness of Reform’. Kuenssberg pointed out that the Conservatives had received 34 per cent of the Makerfield vote in 2019. Stride argued that tactical voting was at play this time around, and said polling shows that Reform’s popularity is waning. He claimed that voters could see that Labour are ‘messing up the economy’, Reform are ‘fantasy economists’, and that the Conservatives are doing ‘deep and serious thinking’ about the country’s challenges.
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