#Keir Starmer

#Keir Starmer

After the fortnight the prime minister has had, a spot of rarefied pageantry is just the ticket. The government weathered a three-hour monsoon of questions in the Commons on Tuesday, which amounted to MP after MP asking why on earth Lord Mandelson was appointed as our man in Washington in the first place, and then why it took so long for Sir Keir Starmer to realise his position was untenable.

Just what has Stephen Doughty done to upset Keir Starmer? Are there no limits to the prime minister's contempt and hatred? Not that Steve is a total nobody. He's not a run-of-the-mill backbencher. But he has risen as high as he is likely to go as a junior minister in the Foreign Office. Probably higher than Steve ever expected. Certainly higher than his mates expected. Put simply, Steve is a dependable plodder.

Starmer rolls out red carpet for genocide, reads the front-page headline of The National, a Scottish daily, as anger mounts over the British prime minister's meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president. Herzog is understood to have arrived in the UK on Tuesday. He will meet the premier, Keir Starmer, on Wednesday and is reportedly planning to speak at the Chatham House think tank later in the day. He is expected to leave on Friday.

I saw how challenging reshuffles can be for PM and party when I was chief whip under Rishi Sunak. They tend to make more enemies than friends, even when they are carefully planned and executed. Worse, the friends they make were probably your friends anyway, and the enemies you make are the ones who used to be your friends. In other words, there are only downsides.

Sir Keir Starmer has a notable contrast between public remarks and private views regarding a Ukrainian peace process, emphasizing support for Zelensky and condemnation of Putin.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is set to intensify pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, threatening to compel a parliamentary vote on recognition of Palestinian statehood by the UK.

Strategic incoherence gnaws at Britain's global actions, with its historical role intersecting diminished circles of the Commonwealth, Europe, and the US now offering no coherent strategy.

Morgan McSweeney is the highest paid special adviser, earning between 155,000 and 159,999. Nine others are in the next pay band.

Keir Starmer aims to lower the voting age to 16, believing it encourages lifelong voting habits among the youth who contribute to society.