‘A shift has taken place’: Starmer faces the music after weekend of reflection

Politics The Guardian By Kiran Stacey, Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker 21 Jun 2026 18:14 1 min read

While PM’s desire to fight was strong, time with his inner circle at Chequers sharpened his sense of the inevitable On Friday, as the dust settled on Andy Burnham’s thumping victory in the Makerfield byelection, Keir Starmer was in defiant mood. “I have said repeatedly, I am not going to walk away,” the prime minister said, adding: “Let’s pull together as a party and a movement.” Just 48 hours later, one of his most loyal ministers was on the BBC sending a very different message. “I don’t want t

While PM’s desire to fight was strong, time with his inner circle at Chequers sharpened his sense of the inevitable

On Friday, as the dust settled on Andy Burnham’s thumping victory in the Makerfield byelection, Keir Starmer was in defiant mood. “I have said repeatedly, I am not going to walk away,” the prime minister said, adding: “Let’s pull together as a party and a movement.”

Just 48 hours later, one of his most loyal ministers was on the BBC sending a very different message. “I don’t want to come on here and be delusional that there is no process, there are no forces at work which are challenging the prime minister as leader – that is clearly the case,” said the business secretary, Peter Kyle.

Read the full story on The Guardian → Opens the original article on www.theguardian.com

Summary aggregated from The Guardian's public RSS feed. The full reporting belongs to The Guardian — please read it on their site.