Changing the leader won’t save Labour – or the country May 12, 2026 The well-intentioned but hapless Labour backbencher, Catherine West, spent the weekend warning that if she didn’t like Keir Starmer’s speech she’d launch a leadership challenge in a bid to flush out more serious candidates. In the end, she backed down, but has called for a transition of power to a leader in September. She has [...]
Bond market rounds on Rayner’s economic platform May 12, 2026 Angela Rayner’s economic response to the Labour party’s bruising local elections defeat would trigger a sell-off in UK governments debt at a time when Britain’s borrowing costs are already at multi-decade highs, bond investors and analysts have warned. The former deputy Prime Minister laid out a detailed proposal for how her party to respond to [...]
Cabinet ministers urge Starmer to set path for succession May 11, 2026 Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation was plunged into a full-blown crisis on Monday, after three cabinet ministers urged him to set a timeline for his resignation despite the robust defence of his premiership he launched in a make-or-break stump speech earlier in the day. Speculation over the future of his government reached fever pitch into [...]
Starmer serves up his best and empty platitudes May 11, 2026 If today’s relaunch-not-relaunch buys Keir Starmer any additional time in Downing Street, it will only be due to the extraordinary fecklessness of his would-be challengers, none of whom has anything significant to say about change either, says Eliot Wilson Is Sir Keir Starmer all right? There is a reason I ask. At last week’s local [...]
Starmer to nationalise British Steel in bid to save premiership May 11, 2026 Keir Starmer has promised to nationalise British Steel and prioritise closer ties with the European Union in a make or break speech to save his premiership after a bruising set of local election results. Speaking after a weekend of frenzied speculation on his future in Number 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister rejected calls for [...]
Rayner tells Starmer: Let Burnham back and end ‘toxic culture’ May 10, 2026 Angela Rayner has accused Sir Keir Starmer of a “toxic culture” in in the wake of Labour’s devastating local election defeat, criticising the Prime Minister for blocking Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster. The intervention ramps up the heat on Starmer, whose position was left looking increasingly perilous on Sunday after around 40 Labour MPs called [...]
Backbencher threatens rebellion as Starmer vows to stay put May 10, 2026 A Labour backbencher has issued the Prime Minister with an ultimatum as Sir Keir Starmer battles to stay in Number 10 after taking a battering at the local elections. Catherine West, a former junior minister and MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, said she will trigger a leadership bid on Monday if cabinet ministers fail [...]
UK borrowing costs waver as Starmer insists he will not ‘walk away’ May 8, 2026 Government borrowing costs – which are reflected in changes in gilt yields – have edged lower as City traders were calmed by Sir Keir Starmer’s insistence that he would not “walk away”. Gilts were the best performing government bonds out of any G7 nation on Friday morning as 10-year yields dropped by around eight basis [...]
Labour’s plans for rent control by stealth will cost £4.2bn a year May 7, 2026 An upward-only rent review ban on commercial property, which has been shoehorned into a devolution bill, will have massive unintended consequences, warns Martin Beck Last year, the then-housing and local government secretary, Angela Rayner, quietly and unexpectedly inserted a rent control policy for commercial property into the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The measure [...]
Local elections 2026: City awaits ‘significant’ event for Labour leadership May 7, 2026 City giants have warned today’s local elections will be “significant” for market pricing, with traders keeping a close eye on possible leadership moves made by the likes of Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham. Several financial behemoths have lined up to warn investors that results across the country over the coming days could be unusually important [...]