Digby Barker

We need to re-establish a Shared Political Culture as described by Lord Sumption in his lecture "British Politics after Brexit" at youtu.be/OVlApCfy-So

@Traytormay @markofagenius Labour still run over half the local councils.

@markofagenius And 1500 seats lost last week.

Keir Starmer still PM and two Labour by election gains in Fulton yesterday. Well I never. I bet that will be ignored by the media.

Unbelievable- such arrogance and ego centred mentality of Burnham -tells BBC running in Makerfield by-election to "save’’ Labour. Rubbish. Person that saved Labour was Starmer after the Corbyn years and made it an electable party again. He is just ambitious to be leader and PM

So it’s almost the weekend and no one has challenged the PM and his leadership Keir Starmer has not manoeuvred someone out of a seat, hasn’t let down constituents who voted for him, hasn’t lied about voting, lied about paying council tax or taken £5m bung or not paid his tax.

Clive, one cannot ignore the mandate Keir Starmer received from the members and the voters, a mandate he still holds today. Regarding Reform, we all know it is a project. We know exactly where it comes from and what fuels it. Please, do not use the fear of Farage to present Andy Burnham as the only possible cure for Reform. You know as well as I do that things are never that simple, and the selection of one individual will not magically stop the Reform project. Using fear as a primary motivator is a tactic straight out of the Farage playbook. Every leader makes mistakes, and Starmer is no exception. However, that is why parties have internal procedures and a Rule Book, to resolve issues without tearing the house down from within. I can accept that this is a struggle between different wings of the party, but both sides seem to forget the members and the voters while you are locked in this conflict. I have had my own reservations about Starmer, but I am starting to wonder if I am seeing a pattern that others are missing. Starmer has made a conscious choice to distance himself from those who thought they could script his premiership. By moving McSweeney and being transparent about the Mandelson scandals, he has exposed what was truly happening behind the scenes. We know the connections between Streeting, Mandelson, and McSweeney. I even wonder if interests like Palantir play a role in this coordinated pressure. Is this attempt to stop Starmer actually coming from the very people who 'selected' him, now that he has broken free from their script? But that is not all. We are also seeing constant attacks from the far left, and you simply do not give up. When you combine this internal pressure with a media that loves the drama and is literally bullying Starmer and the Labour Party, it does not take much to ensure failure. We must be able to discuss everything, but to create this chaos in the middle of a mandate, after so many years in opposition, is like shooting ourselves in the foot. I simply do not accept being frightened into believing that one person is the only solution. The solution is for Labour to stop creating this chaos, to act with unity, to make compromises, and to stop preventing its own Government from doing its job.

Boris Johnson needs to be investigated with regard to BEN HABIB ALLEGATIONS that Johnson receives £1 million to swing Brexit Voting WHO PAID FOR BORIS JOHNSON HOUSE Brightwell Manor a Moated Manor ?????

Unfortunately, my school teacher is no longer with us to grade this piece through her golden rule of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. So, let us walk through Laura Kuenssberg's article together and scan it the way she taught me to. WHO The article relies heavily on an army of anonymous faces. 'An ally tells me', 'one cabinet minister', 'another minister', 'one source'. This is not verified reporting. It is Westminster gossip and unnamed sources. If sources have no names, they have no skin in the game and no accountability. WHAT We are told the race to replace the Prime Minister is officially on. But what has actually happened? One MP resigned from government and another wants to re-enter parliament. Everything else, the timelines, the coronation plots, is speculative drama, gossip, and unnamed sources designed for clicks. WHERE The setting is entirely inside the Westminster bubble. An article about such a momentous topic that will affect the lives of millions of citizens contains absolutely no mention of them. There is no word on how the stock market is already reacting or how this uncertainty will impact the entire country and every single citizen. WHEN The piece talks about a leadership contest over the summer, yet the author admits this timetable is miles away from being confirmed. A real journalist would know the rules, laws, and procedures, and would offer at least two alternative timelines, including the very real possibility that none of this happens at all. WHY We are told Starmer is being pushed because he is a 'slow decision-maker'. This reduces national governance to a personality contest. Why is there no mention of the GDP growth, the many advancements the government announced just last week, or the clear progress made on their manifesto? A proper journalist would look at these undeniable results and search for the deeper, hidden motives of the people challenging the PM. The Verdict My teacher would have given this a 2/10. It is a theatre review masquerading as news. The author lists major issues on the PM's desk, help with energy bills, defense spending, social media safety for children, and so much more. Yet, these crucial issues are treated as mere background decoration for party infighting. The fact that this comes from the BBC is what should worry us the most. A broadcaster that built its global reputation on honest, investigative journalism now relies on writers who treat politics like a soap opera. Between these narratives, figures like Robbie Gibb with questionable political motives, and an Ofcom regulator that does everything except its job, civic trust is being destroyed. Laura Kuenssberg can go hand in hand with Chris Mason. We are left to wonder why the two of them are doing this and what their motives are, especially regarding the BBC, which we pay for. We deserve real facts, not orchestrated drama. #BBCNews #LauraKuenssberg #ChrisMason #Ofcom #UKPolitics #Journalism #VotersFirst #Decency

This interview is the holy grail of insight needed to rehabilitate the human race. Watch Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith explain his revolutionary breakthrough in understanding human behaviour we've been waiting for.

There’s a complete lack of loyalty. I think Keir Starmer should stay. I think there shouldn't be a leadership contest. And I back Keir Starmer to finish the job that he started, deliver the manifesto that he got elected on. Yes, things have been tough. Yes, he's made mistakes. The background in the world with Trump 2.0, the Iran war, all that kind of stuff, hasn't helped, but our economy grew very strongly in the 1st quarter, and that news was out just this week, yesterday, and things aren't that bad. But it's been painted that way. gbnews.com/politics/dale-…

Allegations that Farage and Johnson took bribes to rig the 2019 General Election. The BBC, right wing press, Good Morning Britain, ITV News, Sky News and all the rest of them - silence. @BBCNews @ChrisMasonBBC @bbclaurak @GMB @susannareid100 @SkyNews @toryboypierce @metpoliceuk

Striking contrast between visceral domestic criticism of Starmer and high regard in which he's held by several European counterparts. Latest article @BylineTimes The Political and Media Myopia That Has Paralysed Keir Starmer's Government – Byline Times share.google/73QBax6CI8vJqi…

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Let me get this straight. Trump sued his own IRS for $10 billion. His own Justice Department is now considering settling that case. And one of the terms on the table is that the IRS drops all audits of Trump, his family, and his businesses PERMANENTLY. He’s using the full weight of the federal government to protect himself and his family from accountability and potentially pay himself BILLIONS of your tax dollars. nytimes.com/2026/05/12/bus…

THE BIGGEST BANKING LEAK IN HISTORY Hervé Falciani was an IT worker at HSBC Swiss private bank in Geneva. Between 2006 and 2008, he collected data on over 130,000 clients and handed it to French tax authorities on five DVDs at a Nice airport. The Guardian, BBC, and Le Monde called it the biggest banking leak in history. What was inside? Evidence that HSBC's Geneva branch helped people accused of drug-running, corruption, money-laundering and arms-dealing conceal billions of dollars in Switzerland. Not allegedly. In detailed bank notes. With staff reassuring clients their names would never reach their home governments. HSBC Swiss subsidiary helped customers withhold over $204.5 billion in assets from international tax authorities, traced back to 20,000 offshore companies. Arms dealers. Blood diamond traders. People connected to Assad. Mubarak. Royals. Politicians. The lot. The data eventually reached HMRC. They ran Operation SOLACE. They investigated and challenged more than 1,000 account holders and collected £135 million in unpaid tax, interest and fines. In 150 cases they sought criminal prosecution. One conviction. One. A property developer fined £469,000. @HSBC_UK itself? In November 2017, HSBC agreed to pay 300 million euros to avoid going to trial in France for enabling tax fraud, under a deal that let them negotiate a fine instead of facing a criminal court. French prosecutors dropped the case. Switzerland fined them a sum that amounted to about a fifth of the £135 million HMRC recovered in the UK alone. Even the prosecutor imposing the fine launched a stinging attack on Swiss law for preventing anything close to a deterrent. The man who exposed all of it? Switzerland sentenced Falciani to five years in prison for banking data theft, the longest sentence ever demanded by the confederation's public ministry in such a case. The bank paid a fine. The whistleblower got a five-year sentence. Tell me again how the system holds the powerful to account SOURCES: The Guardian @guardian | ICIJ @ICIJorg | BBC News @BBCNews | Le Monde @lemondefr | Wikipedia / SwissLeaks | Tax Justice Network @TaxJusticeNet

@Notretsam @Peston I agree with your criticism of Peston's opinion. But GE's are ultimately about electing a Party not a leader. So replacing leaders without a GE is democratic under the UK Constitution.

@Peston This is complete rubbish. Starmer is not a lame duck Prime Minister; he is the Prime Minister the people as a whole voted for, and the people still support him If he is removed, that is 2 out of the last 7 PMs that the people didn't first vote into No. 10 That is not democracy

The consensus at the top of the Labour Party appears to be that Keir Starmer won’t announce a timetable for his departure until Andy Burnham fights the Makerfield by-election. But that makes very little sense to me. Because, as I said on ITV’s News at Ten, the probability he can survive as PM, even if Burnham were to lose the by-election is low. This is what his cabinet colleagues and trade union leaders have made clear to him (and to me). So the timing and manner of his exit are now at the mercy of events, which makes him a lame duck prime minister - whose utterances about policy will barely be heard above the racket of speculation about how and when he will go. This would be humiliating for any PM, but perhaps doubly so for Starmer given that his genuine success in taking Labour to a landslide victory after the nadir of the 2019 election would risk being forgotten and ignored if his last weeks in office are spectacularly chaotic. The limitations on his power are already conspicuous. As his closest colleagues tell me, he was only powerful enough to do the most limited and unambitious of reshuffles to fill the vacancy at health created by Wes Streeting’s resignation - although the disaster of last week’s elections would have been the trigger for a more comprehensive reshaping of the Cabinet if the PM were stronger. Starmer lacks the authority to force any of his ministers to move or leave the government. It’s telling that the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood kept her job even after her allies briefed she told the PM his time is up, and that Streeting dictated the timing of his own resignation, even though his enforcers were actively briefing against the PM. In the Cabinet, the prime minister is supposed to be the first among equals. In Starmer’s case, scrap “the first” and maybe insert “second”. Also, resignations and sackings have over months left his Downing Street team depleted. As even his friends tell me, few want to take a career risk by working for him, partly because of the open secret that he won’t be in post much longer (and partly because the Whitehall zeitgeist is that he is the worst kind of delegator, one who insists on delegating but then shows little loyalty or understanding when things go wrong). So what’s the alternative to him being in office but not in power, as it were? Perhaps he should emulate Tony Blair, despite many in his party having repudiated the Blair years. In September 2006, Blair announced he would resign within a year and he stood down the following June. This longer timetable meant Blair wasn’t tainted by the chaos of unexpected immediate elections. And because the election schedule was dictated by him rather than by factors beyond his control, he looked commensurately stronger. He appeared to be the master of events, not the victim. The “will he? won’t he?” about Starmer last week was exhausting just to narrate, as I had to do. Goodness knows how bad it was for the main protagonist, Starmer. To be clear, any PM that says he’s off is weakened by that very pledge. But Starmer might actually have even less authority in today’s limbo, where everyone but he acknowledges the reality that he is a short-dated stock.

@Peston Dear God Peston, you are difficult to listen to at the best of times with all your deliberate umms & ahhs but this diatribe is insufferable. Your journalistic talent & behaviour beggars belief. Why don’t you stick to the facts rather than your own political bias? @itvnews @Ofcom

@Peston Give it a rest @Peston! We don’t care for your ‘opinion’ which you broadcast as news. Starmer has spoken and so has the electorate - we said ‘hold the line’. 20000 new Labour members in a matter of days just to support Starmer.

@Peston Why would our democratically elected Prime Minister need to announce a timetable for his departure when it is currently only the British Media that are challenging his leadership. #TeamStarmer @Keir_Starmer best PM in decades @UkLabour

Starmer is staying. Peston, Maybe it's you who needs a new job? You were exhausted reporting on Starmer last week, i'm exhaused after reading just two of your paragraphs. Maybe report facts or make clear you're giving your own opinion. Sounds too onesided for a journalist. Burnham has lost a leadership contest twice. Big money is on Burnham losing again.. if he is lucky enough not to lose to Reform in the Makerfield by election. LEAVE STARMER ALONE, he hasn't broken any laws, in fact he is doing what millions expect of him.. running the government if challenging international times.

Robert, what you are presenting is not fact, it is a narrative constructed from selective briefings and your own interpretation, and it risks misleading people about where the real balance of opinion lies. You omit a crucial point from the outset. Andy Burnham is not assured of winning that seat. In fact, it is far more fragile than is being suggested. This is not a safe Labour constituency by any stretch. It sits in an area that delivered some of the strongest support for Brexit in the country, and where recent local elections showed significant momentum for Reform. Opening that seat for a by election is not a routine decision, it is a high risk political gamble. Reform will target it aggressively, and the Greens will also see an opportunity. This would not be a contained Labour exercise, it would become a multi front contest in a constituency already shifting away from the party. Nigel Farage and his organisation will not miss the opportunity to frame it as a defining moment, and if that seat is lost, they will present it as proof that they, not Labour, understand those voters. There is also the question of the sitting MP. There is no compelling reason for that seat to be vacated beyond facilitating a leadership manoeuvre. Voters will see that for what it is, and many will resent being treated as a staging ground for internal ambition. They will not take kindly to being used as guinea pigs in a Westminster exercise designed to promote an individual. At the same time, you fail to address the most important factor of all. If any leadership contest were to take place, it is decided by the members of the Labour Party. Not by commentators, not by briefings, and not by the Westminster echo chamber. And those members are not passive observers. Across the country, they are deeply frustrated, in many cases livid, at the conduct of parliamentarians in this episode. The constant positioning, the public undermining, and the sense of a party turning in on itself rather than delivering on its mandate has not gone unnoticed. Nor is this confined to members. The wider electorate who voted Labour are watching this closely, and many are saying quite openly that if Starmer is forced out, they will not vote Labour again. That is not an isolated murmur, it is becoming a visible and growing warning. If the party ignores it, the consequences could be severe. No matter who replaces him, Labour risks following the same road as the Conservatives, declining from a party of government into a diminished force in British politics. There is no groundswell of support among members for Andy Burnham in the way your piece implies. Members know his record. They remember previous leadership contests and the outcomes of those campaigns. There is caution, even scepticism, about presenting him as the inevitable successor, and from what can be seen on the ground, support for him is far from assured. He may well find that the backing being assumed in commentary does not translate into votes when it comes to it. You also overlook the broader reality. There is no settled consensus around alternative leadership. Different names carry different liabilities, and none are guaranteed to command either party unity or public support. The idea of a smooth transition is far more uncertain than your column suggests. Under the party’s rules, Keir Starmer remains leader with a clear mandate. The influence of other actors is not what it once was, and to present his departure as inevitable is to move from reporting into assumption. What is being described as a foregone conclusion is anything but. The reality is more complex, far less certain, and far more dangerous than your analysis suggests. If this course continues, it will not simply damage Starmer. It will damage Labour itself, fracture its support, and open the door to Reform in a way that may prove catastrophic for the country.

I used to be an activist and I dabbled in politics for a time. To me, politics is the art of the possible. A politician should be someone who turns opportunities into actions, earning their political points through results. When I looked into Wes more closely, I allowed myself to believe he understood this. His silence yesterday led me to a construction in my mind. I imagined him going to Starmer and saying: I will not challenge you because you deserve credit for much of our success, but things are not right and we must fix them. I imagined him presenting everything in that letter and asking: Are you ready to change this together? I will stand by you and tomorrow we go out and defeat the media that plays at politics and wishes us no good. Wes is young, articulate and specific. I thought he could offer more, that he could seize the moment and show the art of the possible in action. Yesterday I listened to the speeches in Parliament. I laughed and cried at the brilliant speech by the MP Naz Shah about the opportunity and chance she received and her desire to give back to this country what it gave her. I want only that, but this politics of betrayal and chaos will not lead me to my goal. When I had several business meetings in the House of Lords, I felt honoured and grateful. I knew then that it is only right to give back to this country what it has given me. It is difficult for me, but I do not give up believing in this country, democracy and the majority of its people whom I adore. Politics has changed. It is not even the same as it was two years ago. Communication, technology and interaction are moving faster than we age. Starmer is old school and relatively new in politics, but I believed his circle should have convinced him that not only voters, but his own colleagues, want a change in how we communicate and deliver on promises. You may call me naive or over-optimistic. I built that scenario in my head for one reason: I want this government to succeed. I do not want the markets to go wild or prices to soar again. This is not just about daily life, it is because I want to start my business. I cannot do that if the government is unstable. I cannot do it with Reform breathing down my neck, people who, if they take power tomorrow, might tell me I have no right to own a business because I lack citizenship. I have settled status and the right to apply for citizenship. I have paid significant taxes over these seven years, volunteered over 1,300 hours and funded my daughter’s university education here. Yet I am not certain I will receive it. Because Shabana Mahmood has turned things upside down to flirt with the right wing, if I pay £2k for an application and they say sorry, I won't get my money back. Tricky, isn't it? Despite Starmer’s mistakes, I believe a man who trusts in his country, its laws and possesses that decency I so admire in the British is my only guarantee that Reform will not take power. I have seen him distance himself from politics that flirt with the right wing, politics that sacrifice ordinary, decent citizens just to appease the loudest voices. For someone like me, building a life and a business here, that decency is not just a word. It is my security 😳 #UKPolitics #Starmer #WesStreeting #Decency #Citizenship #SettledStatus #SmallBusiness #ArtOfThePossible