Keir Starmer’s ears might be burning at the rapidly increasing number of ministers and Labour MPs grumbling loudly that Labour will only be saved through a change of leader. A Prime Minister who led them to a thumping Westminster majority in 2024 is judged as an electoral deadweight in 2025. Voters, screamed a despairing backbencher, have firmly made up their minds and despise Starmer. A middle-ranking minister confided he’d reluctantly concluded a fresh face was essential – though admitted he didn’t know whether the saviour would be Wes, Angela, Shabana, Bridget or Andy, or how to engineer a bloodless switch. Grim-faced MPs swap tales of hostile constituency encounters, competing to give the most damning assessment of Starmer’s public standing. “Cholera is probably more popular on the doorstep than the PM,” sighed one MP. That’ll take some beating.
Reform’s Luke Campbell and Stephen Atkinson, respectively the mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire and the leader of Lancashire Council, were among a group of northern politicos who sent an open letter to Rachel Reeves this week setting out their shopping list of demands before the Budget. Or were they? When the New Statesman noticed these demands included two contradictions of Nigel Farage’s latest positions – on the two-child benefit cap and Northern Powerhouse Rail – Reform flacks scrambled for an explanation. Atkinson, apparently, doesn’t know how what looks like his handwritten signature ended up on the letter. Hmmm. A Reform source also claimed that the call for a repeal of the cap was “broadly in line” with Farage’s latest position that it should only be lifted for working British couples. A rift at the top over the policy? Or just a good old-fashioned cock-up?
Disharmony in the Liberal Democrats. Neglected MPs are revolting against Ed Davey’s iron rule, moaning a stunt-mad leader ignores most of them and speaks only to a few favourites. To catch Davey’s attention, the great unheard could always try repeatedly falling off paddle boards on Lake Windermere or galloping on hobby horses over tiny fences. Imitation is the sincerest form of pleading.
Should Plaid Cymru be pronounced Plaid-to-all-Comers? A trusted informant once high up in the Welsh nationalist party suggested its “ruthless pragmatist” leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who dreams of replacing Eluned Morgan as First Minister in next May’s Senedd elections, wasn’t bothered about the party’s long-time goal of freeing the Welsh dragon from the Union. “There is no way he believes in an independent Wales,” they said. Is the daffodil a fig leaf?
Nor is much hope found in Tory ranks, despite Kemi Badenoch’s improved PMQs performances. Contemplating the party’s pollageddon ratings, a shadow cabinet member was just as despairing as the government minister cited at the start of this column. “I’d back anyone that isn’t Jenrick to replace Kemi, but who is there?” mused the Tory frontbencher. “Should I just start by asking the other 100 MPs who wants the job?” It’s a plan of sorts, we suppose.
Your Party doesn’t yet have a name and already the new left-wing force is splitting into factions. At a meeting of the Democratic Socialists for Your Party, which was held online on Sunday evening, Zarah Sultana was asked by a prospective member: “Will you split and form a vanguard party?” Furious at what they deem to be opposing political views within the Independent Alliance of MPs, they called on Sultana to form a breakaway group. “I’ve left the Labour Party and I’m not here to recreate another one,” Sultana said, rejecting the idea. Others disagreed with the sentiments voiced by this renegade prospective member in stronger terms. One disgruntled attendee messaged the chat: “If you want to be Stalin, go do that somewhere else please.” Splitting splitters.
Classroom warrior Bridget Phillipson registering a deputy leadership £10,000 donation from the north-east entrepreneur Paul Callaghan is an unmissable opportunity to recall why he renamed a Sunderland public house. Callaghan bought and renamed the Londonderry – styled after brutal Durham pit owner the Marquess of Londonderry – as the Peacock. Callaghan’s revenge was for the Londonderrys evicting his family during an 1891 Silksworth Colliery strike. That’s the kind of history a radical Education Secretary would want taught in local schools.
Labour parachuting Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell on to the BBC board would have deserved condemnation – and the Tories actually giving Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s No 10 communications chief, a seat on the governing body illustrates the Conservatives’ cynical ruthlessness. Gibb reportedly led the Trumpist charge against the corporation, and Michael Prescott – the author of the handily leaked memo criticising the Beeb from an unrelenting right-wing perspective – is said to be a pal. Prescott denies any political affiliation, but the Sunday Times hack-turned-lobbyist was a conservative dresser as a journalism student at Cardiff University at the height of Thatcherism. He stood out among the scruffs by wearing a smart three-piece suit à la Rees-Mogg.
Note: This article was updated on 18 November 2025 to correct an error in a quote attributed to Zarah Sultana, which suggested that she had welcomed the prospective Your Party member’s invitation to form a “vanguard party”. This was not the case, and we apologise for the error.
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This article appears in the 13 Nov 2025 issue of the New Statesman, What Keir won't hear