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Starmer to weigh up future over weekend, Times told

Sir Keir Starmer will weigh up his future over the weekend amid mounting pressure from his cabinet in the wake of Andy Burnham’s by-election victory, The Times has been told.

The prime minister has publicly insisted that he will not “walk away” and has said he is prepared to fight a challenge from Burnham if it comes to a leadership contest.

However, privately sources close to the prime minister said he recognises there is growing pressure from the backbenches for him to go. He is expected to take the weekend with his wife and family to consider his position before deciding whether to fight on.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/makerfield-by-election-results-2026-latest-news-rbfk8mn0n

He’s gone

• Please stop announcing your speculation as fact.
  
• He has a Jewish wife and Jewish kids, and Sabbath is about to start in two hours. He's not going to announce anything tonight.
  

To be honest when I read that I thought he must have resigned

"Sean Thomas
My 20-year-old daughter can’t find a job, and the reason is infuriating
Entry-level work used to be done by our children – now it seems to be given to immigrants"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/19/my-20-year-old-daughter-cant-find-a-job-reason-infuriating/

It's one of those irregular thingies:

My unemployed daughter is priced out of the market by immigrants.
Your unemployed daughter needs to get on her bike.
His unemployed daughter is a bone-idle scrounger.

It can be hard for university students to get work because they're neither at home nor at their place of study all year long. I grew up in the town where I believe Sean T's daughter is at university and even in the 1990s when I worked in a restaurant in the town they employed a lot more local teenagers than university students, presumably because us kids were there all year round. The few female university students they did employ I remember very fondly... I don't think they employed any "immigrants", it was a very monocultural place in those days.
My 20yo daughter isn't allowed to work during term time, and luckily found an internship in London this summer. Finding temp work in the holidays is very tough, but as I say most employers don't want staff who can only work a fraction of the year.

Yes, my lad wasn't allowed to work during term time either and also found an internship in London in the summer after his second year. That internship was his passport to a job after graduation; hopefully your daughter's internship will be equally beneficial to her. A big well done to her for landing it! I know how competitive they can be.

How was he not allowed to work in term time? Students are private citizens and can do what they want. Many of my pharmacy students have jobs. It’s tough working and studying but it pays the bills a bit.

My parents scrapped and sacrificed so that I didn't need to work at university. In fact I was pretty much forbidden. They saw it as investing in my future.

My old man made me work for a good chunk of the summer holidays in manual jobs from the age of 16 he wanted me to not be an utter twat and to have to learn to get on with people from all walks of life and experience physical work. He made it very simple, you can go and earn money and you will actually end up enjoying it or you can have a small amount of allowance and miss out on the opportunity.

I am so glad I did. Worked on building sites, car washing for garages etc. met loads of great people and once they got over my accent and my life/education, there was always infinitely more in common. It’s not like I was a horny handed son of toil but was still a good life experience.

I still bump into mechanics, lorry drivers, chippies etc from decades ago and we laugh and have a pint.

His family did the same to him and it is something I will always thank him for.

Yes, I worked when at 6th form then Med School. Petrol stations, fast food, barwork etc. I always foundjobs by simply walking into places and asking if they needed any summer staff, or bar work during term time. I pretty much always found work within the day, and that was when there were 3 million unemployed.

To be fair, I didn’t walk in and ask, he set me up with people he knew and, I found out later, offered to cover my wages if I was shit but I always worked my arse off to not let him down but also out of pride. If you are a public schoolboy in a lot of these places everyone assumes you are a bit wet and weak so once you show you are not at all so you are accepted and it was great fun. I learnt so much in every way.

Starmer to weigh up future over weekend, Times told

Sir Keir Starmer will weigh up his future over the weekend amid mounting pressure from his cabinet in the wake of Andy Burnham’s by-election victory, The Times has been told.

The prime minister has publicly insisted that he will not “walk away” and has said he is prepared to fight a challenge from Burnham if it comes to a leadership contest.

However, privately sources close to the prime minister said he recognises there is growing pressure from the backbenches for him to go. He is expected to take the weekend with his wife and family to consider his position before deciding whether to fight on.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/makerfield-by-election-results-2026-latest-news-rbfk8mn0n

He’s gone

• Please stop announcing your speculation as fact.
  
• He has a Jewish wife and Jewish kids, and Sabbath is about to start in two hours. He's not going to announce anything tonight.
  

Boat crossings are the lowest since 2021 .

And no one knows about this because the No 10 comms are still useless !

They are certainly down, and it seems more than the weather, which does average out over time. Probably risking a hostage to fortune if crowing about it just yet.

The smugglers are having to launch from much further away in Dieppe or Belgium because of French enforcement on the Calais coast. Also the Bulgarians have been interdicting boat deliveries.

The visa selling types have also redoubled their efforts.

It will never end unless you tackle demand.

But you do recognise that net immigration has dropped dramatically under Starmer, and is likely to have dropped even further with the next release?

Starmer to weigh up future over weekend, Times told

Sir Keir Starmer will weigh up his future over the weekend amid mounting pressure from his cabinet in the wake of Andy Burnham’s by-election victory, The Times has been told.

The prime minister has publicly insisted that he will not “walk away” and has said he is prepared to fight a challenge from Burnham if it comes to a leadership contest.

However, privately sources close to the prime minister said he recognises there is growing pressure from the backbenches for him to go. He is expected to take the weekend with his wife and family to consider his position before deciding whether to fight on.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/makerfield-by-election-results-2026-latest-news-rbfk8mn0n

He’s gone