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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.
  

You can fuck off

Calm down, calm down.

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

I remember from school days someone doing the weighing of the scales when early Rome complained the scales were fixed and they were being asked for too much gold. The chieftain replied "vi victus" and put his sword on the other side of the scales. It is a lesson the Romans never forgot.

Starmer is in a somewhat similar position. He either gives up gracefully or he's humiliated. His choice.

It's a false choice, it's humiliation either way which fools no one.

Only promise of another job down the line makes giving in worthwhile, it's nonsense that we say it's more 'graceful' to be kicked out informally than formally.

Do people look back at Boris and Truss and go 'at least it was graceful'?

A Prime Minister requires both competence and charisma. Starmer had the competence without the charisma. Boris had the charisma without the competence. Truss had neither. Hopefully Burnham will have both.

SKS has neither competence or charisma neither does he have any political nouse, any strategy, principles, convictions or any ability to understand the term broad church. He has thin skin, is happy to appoint factional colleagues even when it is known they are close friends with a paedophile. He suspends or expels people of principle and then says they are friends. Nasty piece of work complicit in Genocide has a hierarchy of racism and applies double standards for factional reason.

And to think on here still manages to retain a few SKS fans despite being useless

Get the KoN in number 10 now

I pretty much agree with all that, but Starmer does have some skills. He demonstrated these mostly in opposition rather than in number 10 by making the Labour party electable again after the catastrophic 2019 result.

I think Burnham is far and away Labour's best chance of advoiding a thrashing in 2029, and perhaps even a second term.

As @NickPalmer has pointed out, most voters choose party by vibe rather than a spreadsheet analysis of policies. Burnham is relatable in a way that other Labour politicians can rarely match. It will be a fresh start.

GIN's Take (who cares, but here is is, as I rarely comment these days?)

Starmer is done! Burnham will be PM before summer recess starts (just like Boris in 2019 ??? )

Aberdeen has proved Kemi's Conservatives are still alive. It might even have taken them off "life support" and placed them in "high dependency" - Like cockroaches in a nuclear winter... Somehow, the Tories ALWAYS survive and have since maybe... 1680 ???

Yet again Nigel Farage has proved that on the day... When it REALLY counts, he just isn't quite up to it!

Rupert who???

Looking to the future:

Burnham will get a honeymoon and I think its quite likely he calls an election for 6th May 2027, which he will win. Labours majority will be reduced from the weird Labour landslide of 2024 and may be in line with Boris' 80 seat 2019 majority. Labour remain in power until 2032.

Unexpectedly, Kemi's Conservatives will GAIN seats from the 2024 disaster (maybe ending up with +220)

Stupid old bores Nigel and Rupert will knock chunks out of each other between downing their next magnums of wine... Hopefully after Election 2027 when they both do surprisingly little, these dafty old fools just fuck off and die (or lets say "retire" for those easily offended 😂 )

One other take:

Sadly, as I like her, Kemi may end up a Kinnock figure. Someone who somehow managed ti keep the Tories alive through all of the bad times, but who never ends up being PM. But, I'm increasingly confident that when Lab is eventually turfed out of office, it will be the Conservatives that take over....

Ob La Di Ob La Da (life goes on)

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

❤

It's quite likely that both the LAB and CON vote shares go up at the next GE compared with last time. CON more than LAB so maybe LAB 350 seats CON 200. Reform will do nothing.

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.
  

You can fuck off

I can. I won't. Such is life.

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

Oh the irony of that statement.

His love for his wife, his family and their faith has made a significant impact on this life long atheist.

How impossibly hard it must have been for him, between a rock and a hard place.

A Party whose core plead for Palestine recognition, a family following the Jewish faith.

An impossible conundrum

Attacked from the left for being pro Israel, which he isn't, attacked by the right and Israel for being anti semitic, which he isn't. Desperate to protect his family from the media, which he has always done.

He may not be indeed he isn't a great politician but take politics out if the equation and he us an intensely decent family man.

Which makes the constant right wing media character assassination the more desperate and sickening.

What on earth are you on about this right wing media nonsense

This is Labour defenestrating their sitting PM all on their own

The right wing media set out to destroy Starmer in an orchestrated campaign from day one.

It worked.

Everybody knows it except you it seems.

Maybe if he hadn't had lots of freebies, u turned countless times, and appointed Mandelson he would not be in the position he is today

He simply wasn't suited to the job

This doesn't really make your argument - him having his ticket at Arsenal upgraded at the request of his security detail or attending a Taylor Swift concert are completely irrelevant to his job as PM, yet clearly stick in the minds of some of the public. That is media spin and bias.

It wasn't only his Arsenal tickets but his clothes and even glasses which were simply a terrible look

GIN's Take (who cares, but here is is, as I rarely comment these days?)

Starmer is done! Burnham will be PM before summer recess starts (just like Boris in 2019 ??? )

Aberdeen has proved Kemi's Conservatives are still alive. It might even have taken them off "life support" and placed them in "high dependency" - Like cockroaches in a nuclear winter... Somehow, the Tories ALWAYS survive and have since maybe... 1680 ???

Yet again Nigel Farage has proved that on the day... When it REALLY counts, he just isn't quite up to it!

Rupert who???

Looking to the future:

Burnham will get a honeymoon and I think its quite likely he calls an election for 6th May 2027, which he will win. Labours majority will be reduced from the weird Labour landslide of 2024 and may be in line with Boris' 80 seat 2019 majority. Labour remain in power until 2032.

Unexpectedly, Kemi's Conservatives will GAIN seats from the 2024 disaster (maybe ending up with +220)

Stupid old bores Nigel and Rupert will knock chunks out of each other between downing their next magnums of wine... Hopefully after Election 2027 when they both do surprisingly little, these daft old fools just fuck off and die (or lets say "retire" for those easily offended 😂 )

One other take:

Sadly, as I like her, Kemi may end up a Kinnock figure. Someone who somehow managed to keep the Tories alive through all of the bad times, but who never ends up being PM. But, I'm increasingly confident that when Lab is eventually turfed out of office, it will be the Conservatives that take over....

Ob La Di Ob La Da (life goes on)

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

❤

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

Oh the irony of that statement.

His love for his wife, his family and their faith has made a significant impact on this life long atheist.

How impossibly hard it must have been for him, between a rock and a hard place.

A Party whose core plead for Palestine recognition, a family following the Jewish faith.

An impossible conundrum

Attacked from the left for being pro Israel, which he isn't, attacked by the right and Israel for being anti semitic, which he isn't. Desperate to protect his family from the media, which he has always done.

He may not be indeed he isn't a great politician but take politics out if the equation and he us an intensely decent family man.

Which makes the constant right wing media character assassination the more desperate and sickening.

What on earth are you on about this right wing media nonsense

This is Labour defenestrating their sitting PM all on their own

The right wing media set out to destroy Starmer in an orchestrated campaign from day one.

It worked.

Everybody knows it except you it seems.

Maybe if he hadn't had lots of freebies, u turned countless times, and appointed Mandelson he would not be in the position he is today

He simply wasn't suited to the job

This doesn't really make your argument - him having his ticket at Arsenal upgraded at the request of his security detail or attending a Taylor Swift concert are completely irrelevant to his job as PM, yet clearly stick in the minds of some of the public. That is media spin and bias.

It wasn't only his Arsenal tickets but his clothes and even glasses which were simply a terrible look

If he'd fixed house building or helped improve the economy faster than competitors, or stopped the boats, would any of that matter?

Of course not, its complete tittle tattle in a world where the leader of the party topping the polls takes £5m from an overseas crypto boss without declaring it and gets far less media attention.