Sunday, 14 June 2026

Is Keir Starmer facing his last few weeks as British prime minister?

I could say poor Keir Starmer. He won a huge majority for the Labour Party, annihilated the Conservatives who had enjoyed years of total chaos, and promised voters he would not raise income tax. Now, here we are, nearly two years later, and the Labour government under Starmer is also facing political chaos. Starmer promised to spend much more on defence in the light of Russia's increasing aggression towards Europe, and maybe particularly towards the UK, and yet he has failed to find the money to fulfil his promise. The welfare state handouts have gone way over the top, there are a million young people who have never had a job and have no money or prospects and have to live with their parents because they can't afford a home of their own, and, worse for Starmer, many of his cabinet colleagues are fed up with him. Now, this coming week, he will know for sure whether Andy Burnham, a would-be leader of the Labour party currently Greater Manchester mayor, is standing for parliament again so that he can challeng Starmer, beat him and any other contenders, and enter Number Ten as the next prime minister. Andy who, most people in the rest of the world will be saying. Well, he was a minister in a previous government and seemed ok but when he went for the top job he lost to Starmer which is why he gave up parliament and hoofed off to Manchester. He is standing for Makerfield near Manchester in a by-election and if he wins, Starmer will be in trouble. The truth is that whether Burnham or Starmer is the prime minister by the end of it all, it will make very little difference. There will still be no extra money for defence, there will still be a million young people unemployed and nothing much will change. Starmer seems a decent bloke doing his best which isn't good enough, and Burnham is a decent bloke who will try to do his best but it won't solve Britain's economic problems unless he throws away all the Labour promises published in their manifesto at the last election and announces a rise in income tax across the board and a huge tax boost for business which will force them to recruit more people, preferably out of the million young unemployed, and hang on to all the employees they currently have and stop sacking them all in favour of AI. I will end the way I began, poor Keir Starmer.

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