Commons Confidential: Jealous Johnson’s poppy-lopping
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
ByKeir Starmer
Keir Rodney Starmer is a Labour Party politician who became Prime Minister on 5 July 2024. He has been MP for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015 and leader of Labour since April 2020. Starmer, born in 1962, studied law at the University of Leeds and Oxford, then became a barrister specialising in human rights. In 2008 he was appointed director of public prosecutions, for a five-year term. Find news, comment, and analysis about him here.
Exclusive: Tony Blair wants to advise the next Labour government
The former prime minister hopes to return to British politics to “help on the policy side”.
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Is Labour still calling for Boris Johnson to resign?
Confusion reigns as Keir Starmer refuses to repeat his call for Johnson to go, but a party spokesperson insists nothing…
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By repudiating Stop the War, Keir Starmer has reclaimed Labour’s history
It was Clement Attlee’s government that took the UK into Nato, and Starmer has returned his party to the diplomatic…
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The Labour left needs to get serious on defence
Anybody who wakes up angrier at Starmer than at Putin should think hard about whether Labour politics is for them.
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Inside Politics: Labour’s cost of living split
Our politics team on shadow cabinet divisions, what Tom Tugendhat makes of Boris Johnson and whether it’s all over for…
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What we learned from this week’s PMQs
The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s refusal to allow a question about Boris Johnson’s comments on Muslim women stunned MPs.
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Keir Starmer has undone his biggest mistake
The Labour leader is right to accept that rejoining the EU is politically unthinkable, whatever the economic case.
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Labour has the public on side – now it needs a story
Boris Johnson was elected as a politician who can be the life and soul of the party, but he has…
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Keir Starmer remains the Tories’ useful idiot
The Labour leader’s attack on Stop the War shows he has learned nothing from the calamities of Blairism.
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‘Tactical’ use of conspiracy theories is poisoning politics
The intimidation of Keir Starmer is a warning about what happens when politicians stoop to untruths.
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Conservative MPs face a defining choice over Boris Johnson
As the Prime Minister refuses to apologise over his Savile smear, will Tory MPs finally punish him?
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What we learned from this week’s PMQs
The convention preventing MPs from accusing each other of lying is proving unfit for the Boris Johnson era.
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No blow is too low for Boris Johnson – even when he’s apologising
The Prime Minister could not resist dog whistles and smears in response to Keir Starmer.
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How Labour can win back Tory voters without insulting them
If your campaign message says it’s time for the grown-ups to take charge, how do you avoid blaming those who…
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Labour used to be the party of the people – how did it become so disconnected?
Keir Starmer must find a way to cross the troubling gulf between public and political opinion.
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Labour needs to think small
Jonathan Rutherford’s urgent call for the party to focus on everyday life still falls prey to abstractions.
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The man without qualities: why Keir Starmer can’t afford not to have a political vision
The Labour leader’s neutral, depoliticised approach risks faltering against a less scandal-prone Conservative leader.
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Why working-class Tories have turned on Boris Johnson
Johnson has exploded the notion that the elite will govern well in the interests of ordinary people.
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Events have conspired to give Labour another chance. Will Keir Starmer seize it?
As we witness the grand unravelling of the cult of Boris Johnson, complacency will not cut it: Labour needs to…
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