Burnham unopposed & likely to be PM by mid July

[Twiglets1]

Wes Streeting confirms on social media that he won’t stand as a candidate for the Labour leadership. He says that a contest where candidates spent the summer “exaggerating small differences” would not be good for the party or the country, and having spoken to Burnham, he is confident that that there is “a place” for the policies he has been advocating under a Burnham premiership.

The Guardian say this means it is now very, very likely that Burnham will be PM be mid July. It is conceivable that another candidate may come forward. But, apart from Streeting, no one else has publicly signalled an intention to stand, and with Burnham now a shoo-in, it is hard to imagine any other MP getting the support they would need to be a candidate.

heguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jun/22/keir-starmer-resignation-timeable-andy-burnham-labour-leadership-prime-minister-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-6a390a538f08adffab1e97fd#block-6a390a538f08adffab1e97fd

The issue was the benefit involved (PIP) and the changes proposed. Looked like something the Tories had left in a filing cabinet.

Maybe his authority was already going downhill by then but a better manager wouldn't have let himself get in that mess.

Well, that's good news for the rest of us!

Do you think that Burnham will be able to reform the welfare budget?

Given your previous ‘rolling the ground’ comment.

Completely agree. I hope he has the nerve for it.

Maintained schools are state funded.

Sorry, didn't see this when I corrected the misrepresentation.

I suppose cabbages last a far bit longer than lettuces!

It won't be easy but it can be done.

Although the PIP reform failed they got a significant cut to Universal Credit for those unable to do Work Related Activity through

Speaking to reporters today, Kemi Badenoch defended what she said about the education secretary at PMQs. She said:

Yesterday I said that Bridget Phillipson was spiteful and incompetent. It’s interesting that she hasn’t complained about being incompetent, and Keir Starmer didn’t say that she was competent.

OUCH!

@Araminta1003 Her main aim seems to be to get a few more Bridget’s into Oxford to lessen competition with private schools. Who actually cares about any of that! It is not relevant. The kids who is well taken care of and goes to the library and to Catholic school is already ahead compared to most of the rest of the country.

Keir Starmer, House of Commons, re: Bridget Phillipson "She knows that for poor children education is absolutely vital and that is why it drives every single priority and value that she has."

Omg how fucking offensive! The worst thing is I suspected that's what they think of women. " The power behind the throne" good enough for being in the background but we can't scare the horses by having an actual woman with her soft woman ways leading The Men! They might not listen because of all the witterung on about babies.

It does explain trans ideology. Women aren't people with different interests they are just ' vibez'

Keir Starmer, House of Commons, re: Bridget Phillipson "She knows that for poor children education is absolutely vital and that is why it drives every single priority and value that she has."

@MulberryBrandy - it has never ever been this bad in state schools since my kids have been young, I promise you! The head is there until 10pm every night at the school I am at a governor at dealing with all sorts and this is a school with lower FSM than what is typical locally. There are unsupported kids in mainstream hitting, biting staff and kids, throwing chairs in most schools now, in primary school. Secondary school has tons of kids with mental health issues and on suicide watch on low attendance.
There is literally nothing Bridget Phillipson has achieved for any of these kids and I am not even talking about deprived schools here, I am talking about the type of state schools Labour politicians tend to boast about.
So when the NEU is telling you she has been completely and utterly useless, then you need to believe her. Not some nonsense Starmer is saying to do his best to keep his “protege” there. Her values are entirely irrelevant. She has not delivered whatsoever.
According to the private school sector and those with high proportion of SEND kids, she did not even visit a single school. Who does that after screwing them over royally with VAT? Remember a lot of smaller independent schools are a lifeline for some kids with SEND and a last resort for some parents.

Also, remember Philipson cancelled Latin in state schools for kids during the GCSE years who then had to drop it during the academic year and cancelled the funding for the International Baccalaureate - lots of state schools have to drop it because surprise surprise delivering 6 subjects plus theory of knowledge is more expensive than delivering 3 A levels, it was not just some state schools ”trying it on”.
The Latin appears to be a spiteful dig at Boris Johnson & Co too.
It is not just private schools that she has been bad for or quasi spiteful towards. She is lowering the standards across the board. You cannot just drag everyone down and tell teachers to up standards with zero funding. They were already on their knees post Tories. One can see how NEU is annoyed, they had hoped it would get better under Labour but it got even worse!

@Araminta1003 I did not know about the Latin and I do support the opportunity to study the Classics. I have a feeling though that you and I are in the minority. As for the VAT, which started off the discussion, it affects so few people.

How utterly ridiculous. Plus what of the defence plan? I thought that mattered. Getting in excuses early with this. Nothing to do with women behind the scenes

Yes- no money for defence? Well it's not poor Andy's fault. He's been henpecked by all those wimmin banging on about maternity leave and childcare. Their poor little brains can't think about bad man stuff like defence. They just sing kumbaya really loudly and put him off!

I’m still smiling at the way Kemi skewered Philipson yesterday.

JK doing a fresh number on Labour is merely the cherry on top.

These socialists really don’t do themselves any favours, do they?

Sir Keir Starmer is locked in a stand-off with his home secretary Shabana Mahmood after the prime minister refused to allow her to immediately sack her junior minister.

Mahmood has demanded the dismissal of Mike Tapp, minister for migration and citizenship, after he wrote an unauthorised article calling for overseas care workers to be exempt from tough new UK immigration controls. But Downing Street is still considering whether or not to allow Mahmood to sack Tapp even though his action appeared to fall foul of the ministerial code, according to government insiders.

The row highlights disarray at the top of the government since Starmer announced on Monday that he would step down within weeks as prime minister after losing the backing of Labour MPs.

£10 bn/year universal credit payments to 1.3 million foreign nationals. The real cost is very likely significantly higher but DWP can't even measure it, such is their incompetence. Mahmood is maybe one of the few labour politicians who actually made an attempt to deliver what the wider population demanded.

The fact Starmer is blocking Mahmood is yet another demonstration of why he is fundamentally unfit to govern. He simply lacks personal ethics.

Agree @Bullandbear with your comment at the end about Mahmood. She is quite popular with the electorate compared to other Labour cabinet ministers, less so within her own party.

Burnham would do well to keep her where she is & Starmer should be using his extremely limited time left on other things than arguing with her.

Starmer would be perfect as foreign secretary but I guess that would be highly unlikely! A shame really that it is not about competence but more about power struggles and party game tussles.

Rayner had previously written about her feelings on care workers. Seems like a fair few of them feel that way. It is also quite close to Windrush Day. However, if you get into the nuances of whose visa is extended and for how long, it quickly becomes quite toxic. What about the Indian data and computer analysts who are paying a lot of tax as well? Should they also get favourable treatment.
I can see the point about care workers invited in deliberately post Covid to help out, but I do not see how this ends well vis a vis other immigrants who have also contributed a lot. So if the electorate are opposed to the big Boris wave then I think they do have to deal with it. We need to remember that the Boris wave was immediately after Brexit and the next election will look at this wave very carefully. So in 2029 the media will be all over it. And I reckon that is where Mahmood is coming from.

I rather suspect this is simply more a case of Starmer getting his own back on Mahmood, given that she was relatively early in calling for him to step down. Nor am I convinced that he would make a perfect foreign sec. The man is damaged goods.

Either way, the last crumbs of Starmer’s authority are evidently being swept away.

Agree it’s better that he goes entirely. Mo point in keeping what irritated enough people to see him go.