TheFeelosopher

@davidyelland @matthewsyed WELL SAID MATTHEW Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

I agree with @matthewsyed in sense that the circular firing squad of digital age political media is now making the job of PM, whoever has it, almost impossible. Leaders in business do not face the same, it is hell we reserve for our political class. Something fundamental has changed here, which we need to address and discuss.

@soniasodha Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

A Keir Starmer reset speech really, really isn’t going to fix Labour’s problem with voters.

@BBCNewsnight This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

"The truth is, Keir Starmer has never been as popular as his party. It's never been clear that he's somebody who's been an asset electorally." Sir John Curtice analyses the Prime Minister's role in his party's poor polling ahead of the local elections. #Newsnight

@PippaCrerar @BethRigby This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

NEW: Keir Starmer repeatedly says he "won't walk away" from leadership - and that doing so would "plunge the party into chaos". While many Labour MPs don't want him to resign now, there's a widespread view he shouldn't lead them into next election. Asked by @bethrigby if he would stand as PM at next election, Starmer says: "Yes. There’s a five-year term I was elected to do. I intend to see that through." (There is, of course, a difference between "seeing through" this term, and fighting the next one. He says "yes" to question, but can't reallsay anything but, without undermining his authority)

@johnmcdonnellMP 👍👍👍👍👍This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

Nobody should be launching a coup, we need to give party chance to have a thorough discussion about what has happened, why & what’s needed now but everything has to be on agenda. Keir will need to put party & country first in judging whether he is risking opening door to Farage.

@Peston This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

The post-elections blame game has started. And there is only one loser: Keir Starmer. “Voters don’t hate the party,” said one minister. “They hate Keir.” Results so far have ignited Labour MPs’ darkest fears, namely that Reform is on course to win the next general election. “That is down to Starmer,” said the minister. “There is no glossing that. It’s what we all hear on the doorstep, from voters.” What is particularly electric is that Reform trounced Labour in Burnham-and-Rayner land, Greater Manchester: Reform had an almost clean sweep in Tameside, Rayner’s manor, and Wigan, Lisa Nandy’s that is part of Burnham’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The personal local brands of Burnham and Rayner, both potential successors to Starmer, were overwhelmed by Farage’s. But that does not mean they will abandon their ambitions to lead their party. Quite the contrary. They will blame Starmer for the humiliation. The question is how far they will articulate that in public. As for Starmer, he says he takes responsibility for the debacle, though it is a funny kind of responsibility because he says he is going nowhere, and will attempt to respond to voters’ rejection of Labour with deeds and words to woo them back. Strikingly the foreign secretary Yvette Cooper just told the BBC that the debacle is a collective failure of the whole cabinet, and they all have to search their souls - in effect - about how to respond. This was not the foreign secretary saying she stands by Starmer in all weathers, though I presume many will have heard it that way. What I heard was a message to her cabinet colleagues that they need to think very hard about what has been going wrong and not lemming-like follow Starmer over the edge of the cliff. I am particularly alert to the nuances of what she says, because many Labour MPs and senior figures tell me that if, when the dust has settled, it is clear to them that their party is incapable of being redeemed under Starmer’s leadership, Cooper would have to take the lead - with Ed Miliband, energy secretary, and John Heley, defence secretary - in informing Starmer his time is up. They are seen, as ministers who served in senior positions in the last Labour government, as the nearest the party has to elders, those with a duty to put party before personal advancement. But if they did serve notice on Starmer, it is not at all clear he would even hear them, let alone agree. He and his allies are going full turbo-charged TINA (there is no alternative). Even so, when you hear Starmer or those who depend on him for their government positions insist they will fight fight fight to win, with Starmer as the unimpeachable boss, it’s as well to remember he serves at the pleasure of his MPs. And they are worried their firm is failing and they will be out of a job when the contract is up for renewal in two or three years.

@SkyNews This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

The English local election results are a "truly historic shift in British politics", says Nigel Farage. The Reform leader is speaking in Havering, a London borough that the party has won for the first time. Latest 🔗 trib.al/0aJJHsY 📺 Sky 501

@BethRigby @SkyNews This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

PM message today. “I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos”. Resolute in face of Qs about whether time to go. He said it a number of times in interview today on behalf of broadcasters. Also said will fight the next election. On @SkyNews now

@DPJHodges This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

Keir Starmer is about to face one of the biggest rejections in British political history. And the response of some senior members of the Government is going to be "Yeah, sorry. But Labour hasn't got anyone who's any better".

@BBCNewsnight This is an election for local councils! Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the journalists & media seem to ignore this.

"They just have a visceral dislike of Keir Starmer" "I've absolutely picked that up on the doorstep" The Daily Telegraph's Camilla Tominey and Labour's Baroness Debbonaire discuss the possible impact of the PM's unpopularity on Labour's vote in the local elections. #Newsnight

@PippaCrerar Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

Cabinet ministers have told mutinous Labour MPs that any attempt to oust Keir Starmer after a potentially disastrous set of election results this week would unleash chaos for the party that would not be easily overcome. But several told the Guardian that even with the PM’s determination to stay in Downing Street after Thursday’s vote, the mood on the backbenches was febrile and events could yet spiral out of control. They also admitted that – while they would discourage any coup against Starmer now - they did not expect him to lead the party into the next election. “When your personal brand is so poor, it is seldom retrievable,” one said. theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@soniasodha Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

I've written about why Labour MPs need to agree on a replacement for Starmer - without a full-blown leadership contest. And what a new PM's first priority should be. comment.press/should-it-be-o…

@itvnews They are elections for councillors

Are the May elections the beginning of the end for the two big parties? itv.com/news/2026-05-0…

@PippaCrerar Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

EXCL: Andy Burnham has credible plan to return to Westminster “within weeks” with GM mayor expected to use a byelection fight to set out new agenda for government, allies say. Burnham, who was blocked by NEC from running in Gorton & Denton, has identified several seats where MPs are prepared to step aside for his leadership bid. In a sign that his campaign is more progressed than previously thought, Burnham’s team is understood to have lined up an “impressive” candidate to replace him as Greater Manchester mayor. Allies said he planned to outline a “radical rewiring” of the state in coming weeks – including changes to electoral system and a 10-year growth plan. By @jessicaelgot & @JoshHalliday theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@MichaelLCrick Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

John Major speaks so much sense in this Newsnight interview. He had huge difficulties in his six and a half years as PM, but almost thirty years on from leaving office he's become the wisest of our nine living prime ministers.

@bbcnickrobinson @Keir_Starmer @BBCr4today Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

"There are moments in history that will define a generation. And I think we're in one of those moments” @Keir_Starmer tells me on @BBCr4today comparing the crisis caused by the Iran war with the 08 crash, Brexit & COVID. He argues that we cannot go back to the status quo & must get closer to the EU economically & to Europe more broadly to bolster our defence. He says the economy will needs to change so that it works for young people wherever they live in the country. This feels like a leader who knows renewed calls on him to quit are just days away trying to answer the clamour for him to set out his vision of the future. Listen in full from 8 am on @BBCRadio4 & @BBCSounds

@soniasodha Throughout history we've repeatedly had incompetent PMs but they are NOT PRESIDENTS and in the UK its the policies & MPs that really matter most. BUT the media wont accept this.

The problem with this is it doesn't work when you live in a democracy and voters can sniff a mile off that Keir Starmer i. doesn't have a clue why he's in the job ii. is an incompetent leader. And if we want more long-lasting PMs both parties at a minimum have to drop the nutty system whereby an tiny unrepresentative group of members get to select their party's candidate for PM, or even worse, the next PM.

@miriam_cates AGREE MIRIAM Only the media & "Westminster bubble" are really interested in this Mandelsson saga, basically its a typical YES MINISTER episode.

Agree. The Mandelson saga is intriguing but ultimately a massive distraction. I want our political leaders to take risks - it’s the only way Britain is going to get fixed. Yet if we persist in trying to destroy them every time a risk backfires, we will continue to be led by unimaginative, uninspiring, fearful and indecisive politicians.

@BethRigby Only the media & "Westminster bubble" are really interested in this Mandelsson saga, basically its a typical YES MINISTER episode.

ANALYSIS: No 10 pleased of victory. But political capital spent on whipping MPs - heard one red wall MP tearful in tearoom as she knows Reform are going to attack her for voting against probe. View settling Starmer won’t fight next election, but no settled view on what comes next and allies warning against messy contest as UK deals with fall out of Iran war on economy and livelihoods.

@BBCNewsnight Only the media & "Westminster bubble" are really interested in this Mandelsson saga, basically its a typical YES MINISTER episode.

"This was the final nail in the coffin for Keir Starmer..." The Daily Telegraph's Poppy Coburn argues that the Government winning today's vote against a parliamentary inquiry won't save the Prime Minister in the long term. #Newsnight