Thomas Caygill, Nottingham Trent University Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has triggered a blazing row by telling the Telegraph that MPs want him to mount a leadership challenge against prime minister Keir Starmer. Starmer’s poll ratings are dire and for some weeks, discussion within some sections of the Labour Party has turned to who
ph. A year in, Starmer still has a mountain to climb. Flickr/Number 10 , CC BY-NC-ND Rohan McWilliam, Anglia Ruskin University In the build-up to the 2024 election, Keir Starmer worked hard to show that his party could run Britain better than the Tories. He promised his government would offer stability after years of chaos –
ph. Under pressure. Flickr/UK Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND Tony McNulty, Queen Mary University of London The government has promised to make major concessions to its universal credit and personal independence payment bill after a large-scale and very public rebellion by Labour MPs threatened to derail a vote due on July 1. The Commons order
Martin Farr, Newcastle University Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has declared that Keir Starmer’s government has driven “a knife into the heart of what I believed Labour stood for” and called for party members, unions and MPs to take back control. The text was McDonnell’s, but the pretext was Nigel Farage. Earlier
Paul Whiteley, University of Essex The spat between Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform party, and Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, burst into the open when Lowe was suspended from the party. The allegation was that he had threatened violence to the party leadership, which he denies. The matter is
Rohan McWilliam, Anglia Ruskin University Many prime ministers at some point find themselves in a situation where nothing they do seems to go right. It happened to Jim Callaghan in the late 1970s, to Gordon Brown in the 2000s and to every Conservative prime minister since 2019. After barely 100 days in office,
ph. Keir Starmer has appointed Angela Rayner as his deputy. Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND Nicholas Allen, Royal Holloway University of London As the dust settles on Labour’s historic election win, Keir Starmer, the UK’s new prime minister, has appointed his team of senior ministers. These men and women
Nick Ritchie, University of York With a campaign slogan of “change”, Keir Starmer is on a mission to persuade the electorate that the Labour party of 2024 is different to the one of 2019. Part of this is his unequivocal “triple lock” commitment to Trident, the UK’s nuclear weapon system. At a time