Zubir Ahmed resigns Ahmed was a PPS in the Department for Health and Social Care (July 2024 - September 2025). Then appointed to parliamentary under-secretary of state in the department in September 2025 Streeting plot afoot

Sky News reports that Jess Phillips has resigned Letter 👇

There have been two formal challenges to a Labour leader in recent history, in 1988 and 2016 (both in opposition). In each case, the incumbent survived So it’s not hard to understand why Keir Starmer is choosing to stay put ... 1/

Jenny Chapman, the international development minister, to BBC News:

Starmer plays the process card. Despite focus on the 81 MP threshold, prime minister rightly tells cabinet that nothing has been triggered under Labour rules, daring MPs in general, and Wes Streeting specifically, to challenge him 1/.

🚨 Miatta Fahnbulleh is the first ministerial resignation

Keir Starmer is ‘listening’ to rebel colleagues, says ‘sad’ cabinet ally www.politics.co.uk/news/2026/05...

Signal Starmer is fighting after reported cabinet visitation New PPS appointments:

A leadership contest without Burnham involved would be a source of immense instability. That is Streeting’s obvious incentive of course, but is it really tenable if a large proportion of the PLP view an election on these terms as somehow illegitimate?

Another PPS quits

🚨 Breaking: Starmer suffers first resignation as calls to quit grow www.politics.co.uk/news/2026/05...

Labour's lack of an efficient regicidal apparatus is telling at the moment An ousted Boris Johnson referred wryly to his party's “brilliant Darwinian system”. Under Conservative rules, Starmer would be gone - which explains Catherine West posturing as a latter-day Sir Graham Brady 1/...

Keir Starmer’s “we got the big political choices right” line sounds a great deal like the chosen defence of Boris Johnson’s supporters in 2022

Rayner not following her obvious incentive to move now and best Streeting is further evidence, I think, that soft left sentiment has coalesced around Burnham How does this now play out? 1/…

“This is bigger than personalities, but it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake.” Angela Rayner says Starmer must ‘meet the moment’ – statement in full ⤵️ www.politics.co.uk/news/2026/05...

The stalking horse returns... What does the 1989 challenge to Thatcher's premiership from “Sir Anthony Whats’isname” tell us about Starmer's test? www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

The most detailed profile yet of the MP who could bring down Keir Starmer. (And a taster for a much larger Politics.co.uk project in the works) West, who left her Foreign Office role in September, currently serves as trade envoy to Pakistan (appointed January 2026)

Starmer ally calls for prime minister to resign www.politics.co.uk/news/2026/05...

Vibe/gimmick appointments intended to nourish the Labour soul that misunderstand the mood of the parliamentary party, not to mention the country

“We need to be ambitious about disabled people working… We need to be ambitious in ensuring we have a country that works for everyone”, writes @stevedarlingmp.bsky.social 🗣️ The government has a proven lever for growth in its hands – it’s called Access to Work www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...

“By dismissing the socially conservative streak of the movement as an aberration, we risk alienating the very heartlands we should aspire to represent”, writes @connornaismithmp.bsky.social 🗣️ Why Blue Labour is a key component of True Labour www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...

[email protected] with the rebuttal: “Blue Labour isn’t a Tory-lite infiltration. It is a reminder that work is a vocation, not just a contract, that relationships matter more than abstract rights and that patriotism is a valid expression of solidarity”

Not insignificant. Johnson was elected in 2000 as among the first Green MLAs. He stood as the Green London mayoral candidate in 2000 & 2004 He was also the Green male principal speaker from 2001-2003, before backing the current leadership model in the Green 2007 internal referendum

“The lesson of 2001 is clear. Disease does not respect borders. Complacency carries a cost measured in billions”, writes Labour MP @bengoldsborough.bsky.social 🗣️ Biosecurity must be placed at the heart of our national security strategy www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...

“Treating our democracy as a bargaining chip in an age of populist anti-democratic movements would be an act of reckless complacency”, write Labour MPs @timrocamp.bsky.social and @drbeccycoopermp.bsky.social ✍️ Labour must not bind Britain’s fate to the failing electoral system

Very good piece. The media has spent a lot of time on Labour and Reform's defeats in Gorton & Denton, but the real story is the rise of the Greens.

“If the Gorton and Denton by-election reflects the state of Labour under Starmer, it is equally a testament to the transformation of the Green Party under Zack Polanski’s leadership.” www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

Compare and contrast. Wes Streeting’s response to Gorton and Denton (left), via @pronouncedalva.bsky.social on X, and Keir Starmer’s (right) Difficult not to read Streeting’s speech as directly responding to the position taken by Starmer

🚨BREAKING: Josh Simons resigns as a Cabinet Office minister over Labour Together scandal The Labour MP says he had become a “distraction”

“The contest represents the first by-election in Great Britain since the 1945 Combined Scottish Universities election in which neither of the two best-performing candidates came from the Conservative Party, Labour, or Liberal Democrats…” www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

The Green surge is coming for Keir Starmer www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

Only reasonable that Advance UK should now merge into the Monster Raving Loony Party

“This diagnosis is false and the proposed cure is a recipe for division rather than unity”, writes @andrewcopson.bsky.social of @humanists.uk ✍️ Governing by nostalgia: Reform’s crusade for ‘Christian values’ offers false comfort www.politics.co.uk/opinion/2026...

“To ensure that climate denialism does not take root in our politics, the benefits of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss must be tangible”, writes Labour MP Olivia Blake Can climate adaptation strengthen UK national security? www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...

Predictably, the Reform exiles are fighting over who should join/merge with whose party

Starter for 10: The first manifesto of a forerunner to which modern political party proposed a mass emigration scheme, withdrawal from the EEC and a “compulsory national part-time militia”?

To think Osborne was Starmer’s pick for US ambassador. Impossible to reconcile this with his anti-austerity rage at PMQs yesterday PM told Ed Davey to “take accountability and take responsibility for what he has inflicted on this country.” Points once again to Starmer’s lack of politics

Keir Starmer to Ed Davey: “People in this country, millions of people have been let down for years and years, and one of the reasons was austerity which his party supported. "He should take accountability and take responsibility for what he has inflicted on this country.”

From No 10: Starmer told political cabinet this morning that “the whole of the Labour Party wants Anas Sarwar to become First Minister and will fight for a Labour government in Scotland.”

Reaction to Sarwar suggests Labour isn’t ready to depose Starmer Some thoughts for @politics.co.uk as Sarwar’s intervention fails to ignite a leadership putsch at Westminster 👇 www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

🚨 Anas Sarwar: "I have to do what is right for my country, Scotland. "It is not easy and not without pain, but my first priority and first loyalty is to my country... "The distraction has to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change."

Silence over the last 24 hours from the cabinet is getting more and more difficult to ignore. Not sure we've heard from a senior minister since McFadden backed McSweeney on Sunday morning

‘We go forward from here’, Starmer declares after two top aides resign in 24 hours www.politics.co.uk/news/2026/02...

Tim Allan had been planning for a “strong start in January”. He has now resigned after only five months as Starmer's director of communications

“Labour lacks its own in-house assassination bureau; there is no reliable production line of ‘men in grey suits’ who can coordinate a lethal visitation while an incumbent remains in place.” www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

“The bottom line is that Starmer’s position is terminally vulnerable, but protected by a combination of process and political circumstance… “The length of Starmer’s stay of execution lies with the Labour herd. The prime minister is only in a position to endure.” www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

Starmer leadership crisis will test the Labour herd Starmer has entered the stay of execution phase of his premiership. But removing a Labour PM is more complicated than simply waiting for the “herd” to move Latest for @politics.co.uk 👇 www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

A Hilary Benn resignation speech from the backbenches would absolutely be enough to finish Starmer off. No question

Lots of ramifications from a frantic day in politics – not all of them will be apparent now. Yet I can't help but feel that the most striking takeaway is the political savvy displayed by Angela Rayner No 10 surely hers if she wants it

🚨 Keir Starmer told cabinet today: – Mandelson's alleged passing on of confidential emails was "disgraceful" – He was "not reassured that the totality of the information had yet emerged" – Mandelson "had let his country down."