The weirdest day in Westminster

<p>Keir Starmer has pledged to “prove the doubters wrong” as he tries to head off a leadership challenge after the disastrous local election results last week.</p><br /><p>Fighting for his political life, the PM announced plans for stronger ties with the EU, powers to nationalise British steel and a scheme to help young people find work. But will it be enough?</p><br /><p>Many of his own party don’t seem to think so, with his former Deputy PM Angela Rayner calling for Andy Burnham to come back to Parliament.</p><br /><p>Backbench MP Catherine West even threatened to mount a leadership challenge against Starmer, but has now backed down and called on him to go by September.</p><br /><p>READ: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/westminster/2026/05/labour-faces-civil-war-to-replace-starmer</p><p><strong>LISTEN AD-FREE:</strong></p><p>📱<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download the New Statesman app</a></p><br /><p><strong>MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:</strong></p><p>❓ <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ask a question</a> – we answer them every Friday</p><p>⏰ <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Get our daily politics newsletter</a> every morning</p><p>✍️ <a href="http://saturdayread.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enjoy the best of our writing</a> via email every Saturday</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>