To think Starmer will be gone by the end of Friday? Or will it be Monday evening?

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Whoever you are voting for today, it's probably not Labour - they might loose 2,000 seats.

How long exactly will it be before he resigns?

I’m more shocked that anyone would even think of voting Green. I’m assuming they haven’t bothered to read their manifesto in full.

That’s the shit moo argument I was making but I feel today will be a bursting point

Two entirely different situations (one acute, the other chronic) but the cost of borrowing is now higher than under Liz Truss. Given Labour have slagged her off more times than I can remember for her mismanagement of the economy, you can compare.

I'm not voting Labour, but because our Labour led council want to build thousands of houses on green belt land, not because of the government.
Council elections should be about local issues not national

Unfortunately I don't have a chance to vote today, if I did I would be supporting good Labour councillors in my area.

I will instead take the time to write to my local MP though (who again is very good) and reiterate my support for the government and to let her know I don't want a change in leadership at this time. I have regular correspondence with my MP, giving her my view on many issues both local and national, sometimes disagreeing with government policies, and I always get a response even if it sometimes takes a little while.

I want Starmer to stay on and I think he will, but let's see how things pan out. What I have said to her is that I think there should be a new leader in place to go into the next general election in 2029.

I would happily bet the PM won't be gone by Monday despite the Beth Rigbys and Chris Masons of this world dearly wanting that too!

Not even one third of the country (England) has elections today. My council is not Labour at the moment and will not be Labour after today.

Of course, a trend of losing seats is bad for Labour, but there are plenty of councils not having elections.
He won't be gone.

AR and AB want the job because it is all about them and their "career", they don"t care about the country, AB has already tried what two three times and failed to be leader, AR is beyond parody, the lack of self-awareness with these types is off the scale.

He has been the subject of a prolonged smear campaign by the tory controlled media as allways happens with labour.

He is better than any of the recent tory leaders. And Bladenock has no experience of running the country she just has opinions rather than policies.

Reform is populated by sleazy, idle tory rejects and neo nazis opportunists, who dont show up for those who voted them in.

At the end of the day these are just local elections He is the elected leader of the country. There is no reason why he can't stay in his post. The fact that you think he should resign means nothing

This government is even worse than the last one.

That's not possible.

I doubt he will go. And neither should he. IMHO. Chopping and changing leaders was catastrophic for the last government. He is against the press currently. You hear very little of what he has achieved , he has delivered on manifesto promises , been string against trump. We would be in a war if not for him.

I think he will stay. He is largely popular with the cabinet. There may be a change of leader before the next GE but I think he will stay

Council elections are traditionally exactly where people register dissatisfaction with the incumbent government. Nobody should be going on the back of it b

Welcome back.

Just googled and there are 17000 council seats in England.

5000 up for election today.

The difference now is that the cost of borrowing is also being driven by external events, plus the UK is still as vulnerable to bond market jitters as with LT, so doubly worse now, Labour could try to protect us a bit by really cutting spending on benefits etc. but they won"t do that obviously because they believe in the magic money tree with rainbows.

He’ll cling on like a bad smell. he won’t be going anywhere. But that could be a good thing because it saves us from Angela Rayner. Imagine that

TBH I'm trying not to think about Rayner being PM since the idea of having her represent us on the world stage is unthinkable - though that said it might almost be worth it just for the amusement value

What happened to Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper though? I thought they were said to be in with a chance, or are neither in favour with the unions?

It’s a fact.

Borrowing costs, national debt, unemployment, inflation, taxes are all worse than under previous government.

Starmer is even worse than Truss. Also a fact.

Same here. My local councillor is brilliant. In any case anything regarding Starmer wont be happening quickly, however much people might think it should.

I don't think 'FYI' means what you think it means...

So on that basis a sizeable number of the cabinet ministers during the previous 14 years must be serial tax cheats?

HMRC have not yet adjudicated (publicly at least) on whether or not there was intent to cheat on the tax situation or even if the tax was due - nesting family situation and property is complex. A lot more complex than buying and selling properties as a commercial transaction without paying correct tax or charging the tax payer for heating your stables to give examples from just two Tory chancellors.

You missed the briefing whereby Starmer single handedly planned the US attack on Iran in the same way that Gordon Brown personally created the global financial crisis, nothing to do with FannyMae at all.

See, this is what I don't understand at all.

Yes, someone might care deeply about some far places but why vote for a councillor who is meant to sort out the potholes and the rubbish and the cyclists riding on the fucking pavements based on their stance on Gaza?

Stupid thing to do.

If it is bad though the leadership challenges will start, he is already damaged over PM, the egos of the potential candidates will be telling their brains that THEY can turn things around, but any sensible observer can see that they are many degrees worse than KS in how the party will come over to the public with them in charge, and that is really saying something because he is shockingly poor at communicating any direction or sense of hope. But to be fair I thought KB was absolutely terrible when she first popped up as leader, she is now on fire (although nothing she is saying will ever happen, her best outcome will be some sort of deal with Farage)

It’s a local election. The clue is in the word ‘local’. You’re voting for who you want to empty your bins. Nothing to do with Westminster.

Absolutely this and I'm struggling to understand why people ignore it.

Rayner will never make it, Wes isn't popular, the only realistic option for Labour is Andy. There are some conversations amongst some MPs in the North to stand down to let him in.

But - Andy only made an interview saying that "we should borrow outside of fiscal rules to fund defense" and our borrowing costs jumped to 5.73%. Truss and Kwasi were amateurs, they only managed to raise it to 4.8%.

Markets anticipate Andy to be in and they don't like it.

Electorate seem to be oblivious to the fact that our interest payments are over £111bn, it's over 35% of the entire welfare bill. And this amount is highly sensitive to market perception of economic stability and deficit (deficit, not even debt).

I actually want Green and Reform to win big today so they have 3 years to completely f.. up local councils so some electorate can see them better and we might possibly have a bit safer GE in 2029.

Luckily neither have a chance in my area.

And Starmer is the least evil our of Labour, so I hope he stays for now.

Did you make the same assessment before Rayner was forced out?