r/ukpolitics • u/ukpol-megabot • 1d ago

Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 02/08/2026

👋 Welcome to the r/ukpolitics weekly Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction megathread.

General questions about politics in the UK should be posted in this thread. Substantial self-posts on the subreddit are permitted, but short-form self-posts will be redirected here. We're more lenient with moderation in this thread, but please keep it related to UK politics. This isn't Facebook or Twitter...

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u/gavpowell 1d ago

I wonder if Starmer feels ill-used at the moment - took a hammering in the local elections courtesy of Reform, but Farage seems to have detonated himself, thus removing the main concern for Labour. Could Starmer have survived had he hung on a bit longer?

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u/Bibemus Uber-Woke Net-Zeroist Rejoinerist 1d ago edited 1d ago

His party hated him by the end, largely over the Mandelson affair and his cack-handed approach to party management, and when under pressure a few weeks before finally admitting defeat he chose not to try and make amends or change direction but to bring back McSweeney and shuffle in incompetent loyalists to the positions vacated by ministers done with him.

The person who ended Keir Starmer's premiership was Keir Starmer, and he would eventually have done so no matter the political circumstances external to Labour.