Even those who dislike Keir Starmer might feel a smidgen of pity – on a human level – for his plight as he tries to cling on in Downing Street. The Prime Minister is being assailed from every direction of his divided government and party with blunt advice about what he needs to do in order to survive following Labour’s disastrous performance in last week’s local elections.

Starmer won’t quit. Every Prime Minister has to be dragged kicking and screaming from office

Starmer won’t quit. Every Prime Minister has to be dragged kicking and screaming from office

Starmer, to use Norman Lamont’s withering political putdown of John Major, is in office but not in power. His future and that of his ailing administration now rests apparently on the speech he will deliver later today. Get it wrong and his political assassins are ready to strike him down. It is a tall order for a politician who has hitherto demonstrated no great flights of oratory and struggles to articulate a coherent political vision that others might rally round. If Starmer had any sense, beyond the desire to survive all costs, he would use today’s speech to announce that he is standing down, leaving it to his colleagues in government and the wider party to fight it out between them for the succession.

Starmer won’t quit, of course. Every Prime........

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