To think no one can SERIOUSLY want Starmer to go now, it’s media created instability designed to damage the UK.

[partmermaidpartplant]

trump, wars, Israel invading Lebanon, US mid terms…….

it would mental for Starmer to go and it’s a trap.

yabu - of course Starmer has to go, despite what is happening in the world right now.

yanbu - time to move on and deal with trump and the blatant manipulation of the media by Russia, right wing billionaire interests.

Yep. I wonder if it’s dawning on KS yet given OR’s committee response how much he’s fucked up.

He used him as a scapegoat to a full house, he should step down.

Unemployment was 4.4% when Labour came to power - an increase to 5.2% is shocking and at 4.9%, it remains significantly above the level in mid-2024. Far worse is that youth unemployment is now at 16.1% - potentially damaging the prospects of a generation.

His own cabinet are starting to distance from him now, Ed this morning and now Yvette. Shame, I think he had further to sink Labour.

Absolutely, this is worrying. But could much of that be because of AI taking over jobs?

Just look at retail. When I was a teenager, we all had Saturday jobs on the high street; either those shops don't exist anymore, or it's been replaced by self-service checkouts. The grad jobs I worked in, such as reception/admin staff, have gone because AI can do it all. It's seriously scary, but that would have also happened under any other party.

I agree, certainly the first 18 months, labour has hammered small businesses like mine and my husband. We are both working at capacity, so we are personally seeing significant financial benefits, but the way that the rules are set up, it's almost impossible to hire anyone to help because we would need to be earning 3-4 times MORE to justify one wage.

But also, i want to point out that it was labour who has really helped make a change to late invoice payments for freelancers like myself. Not like Rishi Sunak who excluded 3m people like myself from any covid financial support. Funnily enough, i'm still remembering that one...

Ultimately, I want to look at the positives. I'm trying really hard to look beyond so called 'fake news' and see whats actually happening, because I can't cope with this never ending cycle of negativity when there ARE some positive things happening. Thank god for the good news sub on Reddit!

Five days ago, the BBC reported; "UK economy grew faster than expected in February ahead of Iran war" "The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy grew by a faster-than-expected 0.5%, while it revised its estimate for January up to 0.1% after previously saying the start of the year had seen no growth."

Let's not cherry pick data to suit the narrative.

In March, the OBR - the government's official forecaster - cut its prediction for how much the UK's economy would grow across 2026 from 1.4% to to 1.1%. This forecast was also made before the start of the war began.

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it expected the conflict to hit the UK the hardest of the world's advanced economies. It cut its estimate for UK growth in 2026 from 1.3% to to 0.8%.

Pretty dismal I would say.

@Codyrhodesisaheel I'm afraid I don't see many positives and when out canvassing for the upcoming local elections, very few people have anything positive to say about the current government.

That's your prerogative. We can agree to disagree. :-)

Ultimately, I'm a swing voter between labour/lib dem. But what we need to remember is that it's not fucking normal to be trying to change PM every two years. It's that bloody instability for the last ten years that has led to the UK declining.

Starmer can’t avoid scrutiny just due to this. He needs to be accountable.

We certainly have no stability under Labour - they've lurched from one crisis to the next since they came to power.

I agree, and most of it entirely preventable and of their own maknig,

but the same applies to the tories. There was no stability under them either.

I'm not a Tory voter. My interest is getting rid of Starmer and then Labour.

So reform.

I agree that small businesses have been hammered, which has been very unfortunate. Then add Trump, tariffs, the AI bubble and automation actually I don’t think the figures quoted by @Tryingtokeepgoing are that bad.

if you take Trump and war out of it then we were probably going to do well. All the Democrat voters who stayed at home caused this.

Trump is actually a child raping pedo. And has faced no consequences, why on earth would the UK damage itself more by changing leader now? Destabilisation is the key goal. KS wants closer ties to Europe.

(on a side note - I would go for Yvette Cooper - I voted for her for Labour leader against Corbyn. Wouldn’t the world have been a different place if she had been picked as the Labour leader instead of him. )

I'm still catching up admittedly, but I'm finding it interesting how many times Olly Robbins says 'Number 10' and 'the PM's office', not 'Keir Starmer'.

'Number 10' is a big machine, comprising politicians and paid staff. The staff don't tell Keir Starmer everything they know as it comes in, as we have seen with the senior civil servants.

The Telegraph, Independent and Mail want Starmer out for their own (varied) purposes.

Olly Robbins was right to say Starmer had a dangerous misunderstanding of the process. KS got it wrong and sacked someone he shouldn’t.

I agree, and if you really think about it the numbers are terrible. Public sector spending is around 45% of GDP. Public sector spending grew by 5% in 2025, so on the basis that 5% of 45% is 2.25%, public spending is responsible for 2.25% of GDP growth in 2025. Yet GDP growth in total for 2025 was only 1.4%.

So Government policy has reduced the private sector by 0.85%. And the problem is that the 0.85% shrinkage in 2025 is gone, and will negatively compound going forwards, reducing the size of the economy and income. Whereas the increase in public spending will compound upwards going forwards, increasing cost. Falling income and higher costs tend to lead to a crisis at some point. A shrinking private sector and growing public sector never ends well...

Surely more likely to be the Liberals, if posting on mumsnet, than reform?

I would be surprised.

Not sure why they have name changed for this thread.

You are joking, surely?

You seriously think that ‘No 10’ pushes through the most senior ambassadorial post the UK has, or tries to get the PM’s chief of communications a head of mission post, and that the PM knew nothing of these things and had no hand in either of them?

I’d like Starmer and Trump to go, but looking at possible replacements isn’t any joyous thought. 🙄

I don't even like him but he should stay. Kemi and Garage are just so very much worse.

I'm interested in what Olly Robbins is not saying given he's, erm, in the thick of it, so to speak.

He didn’t name Starmer because he’s a discreet civil servant who has a sense of obligation; and because he’s going to take the government to the cleaners in an Employment Tribunal or, more probably, a massive settlement beforehand.

The world and her husband knows who he was talking about. What Robbins didn’t say was as illuminating as what he did say.

He did brilliantly. Starmer got it wrong in sacking him and OR set out why KS dangerously misunderstood the process.

She very explictly supported the actions of the US and Israel. You cannot deny that much, even if you want to pretend that she wouldn't have got involved.