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Starmer’s ‘reset’ speech has been overshadowed by Catherine West’s ultimatum |
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Camilla Turner Sunday Political Editor |
By late afternoon yesterday, most of the local election results were in. Dire though they were for Labour, Downing Street thought the worst was over and they could now get their heads down and focus on planning for Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” speech tomorrow.
Shortly after 5pm, the news broke that the Cabinet was being threatened with an ultimatum by one of the Prime Minister’s own backbenchers.
Catherine West, an MP almost no one outside Westminster or her North London constituency had heard of, announced that if no serious leadership contender had launched their bid by Monday morning, she would call their bluff and launch one herself.
Catherine West has been a dedicated Labour supporter since long before her ascension to Parliament |
West, a former minister and the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, claimed initially that she had 10 backers for her “stalking horse” bid, falling far short of the 81 she would need to formally trigger a contest.
However, hours after going public with her plan, she said she had already been “inundated” with messages of support from colleagues.
Her initiative provoked a mixed response among Labour MPs, with some praising her as a “hero” while others labelled it “very irresponsible”. Meanwhile, supporters of Andy Burnham were attempting to convince West to abandon her leadership bid less than an hour after she launched it.
It came as the fallout from Labour’s disastrous local election results intensified, with more than 30 Labour MPs publicly calling on Starmer to go by last night.
This report is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading ➤
The thwarted former minister who could hasten the end of Starmer ➤ |
Local election must-reads |
Dark horse, stalking horse or lame duck? That’s the question everyone is asking after Catherine West launched her surprise leadership bid yesterday in an attempt to flush out other candidates, writes Tony Diver, our Political Editor. Her decision has thrown the debate over Starmer’s leadership into disarray, and threatens to overshadow his “reset” speech tomorrow. Ministers, government aides and MPs are working out what comes next. It’s going to be messy. For subscribers only ➤ |
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Candidates and supporters of the Oldham Group of independent councillors celebrate winning seats at this week’s local election |
A smashed Ferrari in Oldham and a furious showdown in a Birmingham café offered glimpses this week into the fraught world of Muslim-first candidates using Gaza as a rallying cry, write Ed Cumming and Michael Murphy. Independent Muslim candidates say they’re focusing on the issues their supporters care about, but others fear councils are being “hijacked”. Continue reading ➤ |
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Kemi Badenoch speaks to the media outside Westminster Town Hall |
Conservatives have hailed the “Kemi effect” for their victories in areas such as Barnet and Harrow. The Conservative leader’s “honesty” when it comes to confronting the hate marches and tackling anti-Semitism are the key to shoring up support among Jewish voters, insiders believe. Meanwhile, in Westminster and Wandsworth, the Conservatives’ reputation for competent management and low taxation has allowed the party to wrestle these essential seats from Labour. Continue reading ➤ |
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Tom Harris The appointment is the equivalent of responding to a fire breaking out in your home by landscaping your garden Continue reading ➤
Kemi Badenoch The Conservatives’ green shoots of recovery are clear. Judge us by what we do next Continue reading ➤
Nigel Farage Reform has shattered the world view of the Westminster bubble Continue reading ➤ |
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Daniel Dubois connects with the head of Fabio Wardley |
‘What began as long client lunches spiralled into full-blown addiction, until I finally realised how out of control I’d become’ |
Magazine launches, long lunches in Soho and nights that never seemed to end – from the outside, my life looked glamorous, writes Jamie Klingler. In reality, I was unravelling behind a haze of blackouts, shame and exhaustion. Then, in one moment, everything changed, and I decided to become sober. This is what happened. Continue reading ➤ |
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As Tristan da Cunha has no airstrip, the team flew from Ascension Island in an RAF transport plane |
Army medics have parachuted into Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island, to treat a British resident with hantavirus. With no airstrip, clinicians were dropped in by RAF aircraft as passengers aboard the MV Hondius prepared for quarantine on their return home. The outbreak, linked to three deaths, has triggered a vast international operation, with Spain sealing off the cruise ship behind a one-mile exclusion zone as it limps towards Tenerife. Continue reading ➤ |
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Lydia Elder, 36, and her family swapped Kent for Singapore in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic |
While the timing of their move to Singapore at the height of the pandemic was “far from ideal”, the Elder family are happily settled and looking towards a future in the city-state. In the latest instalment of our family abroad series, they explain how they grappled with competition for world-class schools, found a home and adapted to the tropical climate. Continue reading ➤
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Londoners are nicer than the rest of the country
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Jack Rear Senior Lifestyle Writer |
Growing up in rural Lancashire, we didn’t have much but at least we knew we were good, honest people; the type who said “hello” to those we passed in the street, who’d offer a helping hand to strangers, who’d look out for each other.
Not like those abominable Londoners, the lowest of the low. They didn’t say “hello” to people on the street, they’d avert their eyes if you looked at them on the bus, they didn’t even know their neighbours! Imagine! The degeneracy!
A couple of decades later, the shoe is on the other foot. Having lived in the Big Smoke for close to 10 years, I’m now the Londoner I once loathed.
That loathing persists. Anywhere I travel in Britain, I’ll hear some variation on the line: “I couldn’t live there – everyone is so obnoxious.”
This is not true.
I understand why your experiences in the capital might lead you to think Londoners are rude. It’s the same reason the French say Parisians are rude, and Americans say New Yorkers are rude: you are visiting and we are living here.
While you’re struggling to navigate the Tube, I’m trying to get to work. While you’re casually wandering to the museums, I’m late to a meeting. You stop me to ask for directions, and I’m mentally calculating whether you’re about to proselytise to me, try to sell tickets for the open-top bus or beg me for cash. You’re on holiday, I’m in work mode.
Being busy isn’t the same as being rude, though, is it?
When I think of really rude behaviour, I consider calculated offences. Asking someone how much money they make is rude. Making aggressive conjectures about a stranger’s politics is boorish. Sneering at the way people pronounce words and parroting them is uncouth. Describing your hatred for the place a person comes from within earshot is disrespectful.
You don’t really encounter that kind of passive-aggression in London. Over the course of daily life, I meet people with so many backgrounds that I’m largely indifferent. So you make loads of money, so you dress in a particular fashion, so you hold certain views – who cares? There are plenty of other people around. If I don’t like it I’ll move along, it’s a waste of time to stress about it.
I do encounter this genuine rudeness elsewhere in the country. Everywhere from Preston to Penzance, and particularly in other big cities like Manchester and Edinburgh. It often comes from those who seem to believe they’ve scored a moral victory by virtue of not living in London.
Perhaps the view that Londoners are rude has become so entrenched that people are primed to throw the first punch. Perhaps it’s that relationships are less ephemeral and they want to get the wariness out of the way sooner, leading to bluntness.
I can rationalise it in a lot of ways. Why am I prepared to extend grace in the face of open hostility? Because I’m a Londoner and taking things on the chin is what we do.
Do you agree with Jack? Send your replies here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
Dunn takes to the skies again at the age of 97, in 2019, in the rear cockpit of a two-seat Spitfire |
Flight Lieutenant George Dunn, who has died aged 103, is undoubtedly one of the very last bomber pilots to have survived from the Second World War, and he was highly decorated, with a DFC and a Mention in Despatches, writes Andrew M Brown, our Obituaries Editor.
He flew 44 perilous bombing missions before his 21st birthday. After leaving the RAF in 1947 he returned to his pre-war employer, Pickfords Removals, where he spent the rest of his career quietly working as a branch manager.
Dunn (centre) with his Halifax crew |
Later in the war, when losses to German air defences were at their highest, Dunn flew long-range raids in Halifax and Mosquito aircraft to destroy enemy industrial centres. He took part in the raid on the secret German rocket site at Peenemünde, on the Baltic coast, which set back the V-1 and V-2 programmes by several months.
He always said he was lucky. His aircraft was never intercepted by a German night fighter, and only once did he have to evade radar-controlled searchlights with a violent corkscrew manoeuvre.
Latterly, Dunn raised almost £100,000 for the RAF Benevolent Fund. Read his remarkable obituary here ➤ |
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was ACCLAIMED. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Allister Heath, Sunday Telegraph Editor
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