[Tubby Isaacs]

The people resigning don't seem to be obvious Streeting marks. Now 4 ministers, Zubir Ahmed, health minister, is the latest.

The PM should indeed carry on. They want him out, they do it properly.

[Crabcakes]

Ahmed and Jess P. Were specifically named as a “Streeting allies” by the Guardian?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh ok.

[Boiler]

Highest-rated comment BTL on the Groinache today.

Screenshot 2026-05-12 at 17-24-43 (2) Fourth Labour MP quits as minister and calls for Starmer to step down – UK politics live.png (35.35 KiB) Viewed 674 times

And an 'interesting' take...

Screenshot 2026-05-12 at 17-34-50 (3) Fourth Labour MP quits as minister and calls for Starmer to step down – UK politics live.png (19.35 KiB) Viewed 660 times

[AOB]

Do some Labour MPs realise the only way a PM will be liked by the media is if they are called Nigel Farage or are a Conservative PM? Say Starmer goes, someone else from Labour is new PM, do they think that person isn't going to be treated brutally by the media from Day One? Some of them need to stop having their weak little minds shaped by the right and far right, engage some critical thinking and show some fucking solidarity. 14 years of Tory rule we've just had. Give him til 2029 at least, fucks sake.

[mattomac]

Imagine the next one asking for loyalty.

It's really going have to be someone who kept their powder dry, I really am not happy with the character assassination , it's one thing to say we need a new leader quite another by certain people who should know better.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

3 ministers now.

Utterly ridiculous behavior. They know as well as I do that "orderly transition" and "timetable for departure" isn't something a Government will be allowed to do. Nobody backing Starmer now is insisting he stay the PM till 2029. They just understand how the politics of this works.

I am absolutely fucking disgusted and considering cancelling my membership.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Do some Labour MPs realise the only way a PM will be liked by the media is if they are called Nigel Farage or are a Conservative PM? Say Starmer goes, someone else from Labour is new PM, do they think that person isn't going to be treated brutally by the media from Day One? Some of them need to stop having their weak little minds shaped by the right and far right, engage some critical thinking and show some fucking solidarity. 14 years of Tory rule we've just had. Give him til 2029 at least, fucks sake.

The new leader might not be shot from their own side quite as much. Unfortunately the market reaction will likely be less friendly. I don't think there's any sense of how far Reeves has already pushed things with borrowing. Easy for Clive Lewis or whoever to say "what we need right now is investment", or whatever. I don't want Streeting but he's the only one who probably does get the fiscal constraints.

If Starmer's pushed out before the energy bill subsidy, I think things could get very bad very quickly on this score. It wasn't that Kwarteng-Truss did some tax cuts that did for them so much as the massive spending commitment. Reeves has said she will target but she's already facing the Tories, Reform, Lib Dems and Green calling for a much more expensive universal subsidy. Even if the new PM gets it, the temptation to start handing out money is going to be very strong.

[Abernathy]

So am I, Malc, and I’ve been a Labour Party member for more than forty years. If somebody - Streeting, Rayner, Miliband, whoever, had just challenged the leadership openly under the party’s rules, I’d have been okay with that, even though I’d still support Keir Starmer. But all this very public sturm und drang is frankly , disgusting, and not how it should be done.Keir Starmer is a decent man - the best PM for at least 20 years, and has a clear 5 year mandate to govern the country. He should either be challenged properly under party rules, or left to get on with governing for the remainder of the government’s term.

As for Burnham, the man is a disgrace. His situation is entirely one of his own making - he chose to quit Westminster for the Manchester mayoralty and must have known that in doing so he was excluding himself from any prospective future bid to lead the party. He needs to mind his work as mayor.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not his Burnham's biggest fan, and strongly criticized how he acted over the last by-election. But I don't see anyone better, and accept Starmer can't last 5 years. Provided Burnham doesn't repeat that "bond markets" talk (hopefully sticking with Reeves) I think he's the best option. Another thing he could do is stick Streeting at the Home Office, because he'd antagonize a lot less than people Starmer have put there. I think a fair bit of the Mahmood-Cooper toughness agenda will survive, and some of it has to, but Streeting would probably shave some of it off, and not be worried about care workers and students.

Talking of Streeting, wonder who leaked this to the PA.

Wes Streeting to meet Keir Starmer tomorrow
The health secretary Wes Streeting, who is widely seen as a leadership hopeful, will meet Keir Starmer on Wednesday morning, the Press Association understands.

Be amusing if it was Starmer in a "hey backbenchers, you sure you want me gone?" kind of way.

[Boiler]

To see Labour Party stalwarts like Abers and Malc saying they're thinking of cancelling their party membership - even after the fiasco of the Corbyn years - genuinely saddens me.

That it has come to this, and the behaviour of many MPs, sickens me.

Well, fine. If these berks want to create another unelectable Labour Party and usher in the frog-faced cunt and his band of berks into No. 10, let them - and then, as my late mother used to say, "they'll really have something to roar about".

It's just the rest of us who'll suffer; and suffer we will.

[mattomac]

20 Years and I feel the same

[Tubby Isaacs]

When I was teaching in FE and HE the breakeven point for a tutor group was 15 UK students. If a couple of the 15 were overseas students we could run with 10 and some cohorts were as small as 5 or 6.

I didn't know it was as drastic as that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Astonishing thing about all this is that 88 backbenchers have called for Starmer to step down/ lay out a timetable but nobody from the Cabinet has resigned. Thatcher's fall came about after precisely one Cabinet minister resigned, Geoffrey Howe, and gave a devastating speech. With all due respect to Jess Philips, her letter isn't really that. We hear that Shabana Mahmood says Starmer should go. She might consider resigning if she feels so strongly. And while there are unwelcome parallels with Bozo, he had a Chancellor and Health Secretary resign to kick it all off, and three more Cabinet resign (plus Gove who was sacked) before Bozo went himself.

Other recent PMs have been pushed about unduly by backbenchers, but this seems like a particularly extreme example now. I'm not impressed.

[Oboogie]

When I was teaching in FE and HE the breakeven point for a tutor group was 15 UK students. If a couple of the 15 were overseas students we could run with 10 and some cohorts were as small as 5 or 6.

I didn't know it was as drastic as that.

Most undergraduate courses I taught on the overseas students made the difference of several small tutor groups instead of a few very large ones, but some courses wouldn't have been viable at all if it wasn't for those pesky forrins coming over 'ere propping up the local economy with their funny money.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm hoping that if any good comes out of this crisis, we might get somebody in the Home Office who isn't worried about foreign students.

[mattomac]

Also someone who actually understands what Universities are.

It’s been the biggest let down of Starmer for me.

[Killer Whale]

I'm hoping that if any good comes out of this crisis, we might get somebody in the Home Office who isn't worried about foreign students.

Just wait until this blows up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g82j03w94o

Q Manivannan, originally from India, is on a student visa which is due to expire at the end of the year. That did not prevent the political novice from being elected on the Edinburgh and Lothians East regional list.

Opponents believe Manivannan should not have been selected in the first place - while the Greens have accused critics of "disgusting" attacks on their new parliamentarian.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It sounds like Shabana's hardline (at least on poorer immigrants, it's actually mainstream on average income immigrants, despite what Ian Dunt and others have said) is in the Kings Speech. An MSP's income is £77k a year, so there's a fudge there. On the other hand, it's still Shabana (with Starmer's support).

Talking of the Kings Speech, sounds like the Fingleton Bill on nuclear infrastructure will be included. Obviously the technicalities of this are above my pay grade, but clearly there's a problem with infrastructure planning being much too expensive. So I'm very open to it, and was surprised that Lou Haigh was (she was the Transport Secretary, so I expect she has the same frustrations I do). Lots of backbenchers won't be, and it's unlikely to bring back voters from the Greens. I wonder if this is what Starmer intends to do. Get a load of contentious stuff through and then retire.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I know I'm just as guilty as anyone in following the psychodrama, but it seems like Starmer's meeting with Streeting lasted 20 minutes. That seemed like a lot of time to say "Put up or shut up". Maybe Starmer said it lots of times.

Or perhaps Starmer referenced the Bill to abolish NHS England. That's logical, but it's undeniably a big thing. Wes can get his teeth into that.