Noa Hoffman

The Prime Minister is digging his heels in. Keir Starmer has told his cabinet that he is not going anywhere, despite a growing list of MPs calling for him to go. At 9.30 a.m., Starmer was greeted by his senior ministers, many of whom now believe the game is up. So is this his ‘put up or shut up’ moment? Will anyone move today – and if they do, what happens next? Tim Shipman and James Heale join Noa Hoffman to assess Starmer’s fight for survival, the mood inside Labour, and where we go from here.

This is your evening local elections update delivered by James Heale, Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman – all in just 10 minutes. As results come in across the country, they take each party in turn. Have the Greens done as well as we all thought they would? Is this proof that Reform have not reached their peak? Can Labour recover from this total drubbing? And should the Tories be – quietly – pleased with themselves?

As voters prepare to go to the polls in a set of local elections that could redraw the political map, we examine the ‘outsiders’ on today’s episode – starting with the Greens. After Zack Polanski’s grilling on the Today programme, are the Greens facing the same scrutiny that once engulfed Labour under Jeremy Corbyn? Also on the podcast: Tim writes a letter to Britain’s aspiring prime ministers. What does Keir Starmer still lack? Does Andy Burnham have a plan beyond Manchesterism? And why do so many politicians seem to hate politics? Noa Hoffman discusses with Tim Shipman and James Heale.

Does Keir Starmer have confidence in Rachel Reeves? Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on his Chancellor’s future at PMQs – and he declined to answer, twice. Westminster (and Twitter) is now awash with reshuffle rumours. No 10 has since issued a denial, but the damage may already be done, raising a familiar question: is Keir Starmer just bad at politics? With recess looming and Labour braced for a battering at the local elections, Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman join Megan McElroy to discuss.

It’s a blockbuster day in parliament today. To kick things off, we had Philip Barton pleading ignorance; to close the proceedings tonight we have a vote on a possible Privileges Committee probe. But in between we have Morgan McSweeney, the longtime bete noire of the Labour party left, giving testimony on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador. McSweeney pushed hard for Mandy to be given the gig: a decision which he said in his opening statement to the Foreign Affairs Committee was a ‘serious error’. However, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff denied pressuring Foreign Office officials to clear the appointment ‘at all costs’.