{"id":68598,"date":"2025-05-02T14:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T14:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/68598\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T14:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T14:24:13","slug":"keir-starmer-to-step-down-you-wont-believe-whos-tipped-to-replace-him-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/68598\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer to step down? You won\u2019t believe who\u2019s tipped to replace him | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those whispers turned into a roar after yesterday\u2019s local elections, which even Labour MPs are calling \u201ccatastrophic\u201d<\/a>. The party is in open revolt, with MPs saying Starmer\u2019s first 10 months in office \u201chaven\u2019t been good enough\u201d. A desperate Labour threw everything at the Runcorn by-election<\/a>, only to lose to Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s Reform UK.<\/p>\n

The left is now blaming Starmer directly, accusing him of alienating core voters bybacking cuts to disability benefits and scrapping the winter fuel allowance<\/a>. That\u2019s despite handing Labour a huge landslide last July, albeit without much voter enthusiasm. The backlash reveals just how far Starmer has fallen since then.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t expect Starmer to be ousted. His majority is far too large. The rebellion, for now, will go nowhere. He\u2019ll just limp from crisis after crisis, as has been the pattern since he took office. Another rumour is doing the rounds though. It\u2019s been quietly circulating for months, and has gained fresh life after Labour\u2019s dire showing at the polls.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long been suspected that Starmer doesn\u2019t enjoy political life. Few would describe him as a natural campaigner or gifted communicator. Now there\u2019s growing talk that he won\u2019t contest the next general election at all. One term will be enough for him. No doubt there are plenty of lucrative jobs awaiting him. They’ll pay better, and suit him better too.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves. Even if true, we\u2019re still looking at four more years of Starmer in No 10.<\/p>\n

But the speculation is gaining serious attention, including from ITV\u2019s Robert Peston, who’s called it “astonishing” for this kind of talk to surface so soon after a landslide.<\/p>\n

So who comes next? Already the guessing game has begun and the frontrunner is enough to send shivers through anyone outside the Labour activist bubble.<\/p>\n

Former Labour MP and Daily Telegraph commentator Tom Harris has just penned one of the most chilling sentences in political journalism writing: \u201cMark my words, Miliband has a shot at becoming PM.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stop laughing. Or crying.<\/p>\n

It sounds absurd, until you look at who gets to vote in a leadership contest: Labour grassroots activists.<\/p>\n

Among party members, Ed is far and away the most popular cabinet minister. A recent poll on LabourList puts his net favourability at a staggering +68.6.<\/p>\n

Worried? You should be.<\/p>\n

Next in line is another darling of the activist left, Deputy PM Angela Rayner<\/a>, with a +62.9 rating.<\/p>\n

Lisa Nandy trails in third, far behind on +38.9. Realistically, it\u2019s a straight contest between Miliband and Rayner.<\/p>\n

Either would delight the Labour base. Whether the rest of the country would feel the same is another matter.<\/p>\n

As for Chancellor Rachel Reeves? Not a chance. Her economic credibility is in tatters, and her party activist rating stands at -11.2. If she ever crossed the threshold of No 10, the pound and bond markets might not recover.<\/p>\n

For now, this is all speculation. Starmer\u2019s position is secure. But should he decide the job isn\u2019t for him, we may not like what comes next.<\/p>\n

Frankly, having seen the alternatives, I\u2019m beginning to hope he stays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those whispers turned into a roar after yesterday\u2019s local elections, which even Labour MPs are calling \u201ccatastrophic\u201d. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[9311,17790,807,528,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-68598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-angela-rayner","10":"tag-ed-miliband","11":"tag-keir-starmer","12":"tag-labour-party","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114438698754924798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}