Sir Michael Take CBE

Delighted to see that The Daily Mail has had the good sense to quote me regarding the government’s sensible idea to disperse sewage in coastal waters in a safe manner whilst beaches are empty. The Daily Mail continues to be an example of rigorous & well researched journalism.👍

Tommy Robinson types. Inflicting the most atrocious racket on tattooed patriots desperate to relieve their bladders whilst smelling of Lynx and hot dogs. This warped wrap tune has all the hallmarks of too much skunk & promiscuous sex. #BritainHasFallen 😔

Councillor Taylor speaks from the❤️. I sense that Princess Diana would probably have given Nigel Farage £5M as well. But I like to think she would be a Tory. And every time Chris Philp speaks she looks down open mouthed. Kemi would have been her best pal on a girl’s night out.🇬🇧

@Mike_Fabricant @Nat_Mem_Arb @PoppyLegion x.com/michaeltakemp/…

I was very proud to help save the @Nat_Mem_Arb all those years ago when I persuaded a Treasury Minister (John Healey who is now Defence Secretary) to wipe out a six figure VAT debt at the time the @PoppyLegion was considering taking over the Arboretum. The take over was dependent on the debt being cancelled. Thank you John!

@dave43law x.com/michaeltakemp/…

A year in the life of a Reform council inaction........ apologies mean in action....... Potholes, prayers, speed restrictions and local Reform voters who don't want them nationally

@IsabelOakeshott @nadhimzahawi @AndyBurnhamGM @reformparty_uk What? You’ve felt the mood in Makerfield all the way from Dubai? Bloody hell Izzy that is mightily impressive! 😳

Based on the mood in Makerfield today, I think @AndyBurnhamGM has made a massive miscalculation. Just got a feeling that @reformparty_uk is going to win, by a significant margin

Could you help me? Am I right in thinking that after all the shenanigans with The Labour Party over the last few days these are the only DEFINITE candidates emerging to challenge Keir Starmer: Chris Mason Beth Rigby Robert Peston Oh and possibly Andy Burnham? 🤔

@BBCPolitics x.com/michaeltakemp/…

Wes Streeting intends to stand as a candidate in any future Labour leadership race, ally tells BBC Follow latest developments: bbc.in/4uW8MkF

@itvnews x.com/michaeltakemp/…

People's politician or political schemer? Makerfield locals divided Andy Burnham's bid to become MP itv.com/news/granada/2…

@daveatherton x.com/michaeltakemp/…

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has nailed his flag to the far-left, pro-Palestine, pro-IRGC mast, rather than British 🇬🇧 patriots. May he burn 🔥 in hell.

@Peston x.com/michaeltakemp/…

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.

@KarlTurnerMP This is what you call REAL RUNNING:

Burnham’s running!

@KarlTurnerMP x.com/michaeltakemp/…

@NBCNews Free primary health care? Are you Democrats mad? In the UK our free NHS has produced a nation of lazy, tattooed, badly dressed yobs obsessed with drugs, wrap music and waxing.😡

Free primary care for all: Democratic think tank pushes the party on new health policy. nbcnews.com/politics/polit…

@LozzaFox So you’re saying he’s exactly like yourself Laurence?

He can’t open his mouth without lying.

@SophyRidgeSky @DPJHodges x.com/michaeltakemp/…

A week is a long time in politics…. Or even three days

@BBCPolitics @BBCNews x.com/michaeltakemp/…

"We've got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour Party, all the different voices... and that means having Andy Burnham as a key player in that team," Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell says Follow live: bbc.in/4nsou4e

@Kevin_Maguire x.com/michaeltakemp/…

PM or bust for Burnham

@wesstreeting @guardian x.com/chiky_handlr/s…

At the end of the day, when I get home, I know that good people in Ilford North always have my back… The @guardian paid us a visit 👇🏻 theguardian.com/politics/2026/…