Starmer has been calling around the Cabinet today to try and shore up his support. The No10 line is still: He will fight…
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has told him to set out a timetable for his departure. The Cabinet is still split and is said to have waverers…
Naturally the wind is going out of the Streeting spin operation’s sails as some of his allies say he may not mind a Burnham coronation after all. It remains to be seen whether Wes bottles it (again)…
Louise Haigh said Burnham and Starmer would speak on Monday. Events could overtake that…
A trickle of additional Labour MPs are calling for Starmer to go. Burnham’s camp is targeting early September for a coronation, which has been their preferred option for some time…
It remains to be seen whether Burnham will credibly threaten to go sooner, or if the Cabinet will bother resigning en masse if Starmer remains defiant. Currently the No10 strategy is to tell Labour to focus on the Manchester mayoral race. What’s in a coup?
It’s all going wrong for the MPs behind reintroducing the Assisted Suicide Bill in this session. Peter Bedford, one of the MPs to sponsor Lauren Edwards MP’s Private Members Bill – which has Labour MPs tearing their hair out – has been whinging online about “misleading” reporting of his comments to a constituent over the matter. Bedford had egg on his face after his office told a constituent on 26 May – after the start of the new parliamentary session – that the MP: “does not agree with this [the assisted suicide Bill] being debated again in the near future”. Seemed clear enough at the time…
The MP also told the constituent that “he does not think it will succeed if brought back as a Private Members Bill again during this parliamentary session”. He then helped bring it back himself as one of the Bill’s co-sponsors…
The Bill is set to return even though its supporters don’t think it will pass – a bizarre own goal. Labour whips are anxious about the division it is set to cause in the PLP, given a full in-tray for Andy Burnham and a mountain of unresolved Starmer legacy legislation. For Peter Bedford, a month is a long time in politics…
Jolyon Maugham’s Good Law Project has issued an update:
“We can confirm that the barrister Sarah Phillimore has issued in the High Court a claim for defamation against Jolyon Maugham KC.
The claim relates to an article Good Law Project published in August 2025 which identified an online onslaught led by Sarah Phillimore, a barrister and anti-trans activist, which led to an attempt by Kate* to take her own life. The article explained that Good Law Project had made a regulatory complaint to the Bar Standards Board (BSB), Ms Phillimore’s regulator…
Before publishing its article, Good Law Project took advice from Leading Counsel on whether an allegation of harassment could properly be made. This is the only complaint it has ever made to the BSB. It has direct documentary evidence that Kate sought professional help for distress immediately after Sarah Phillimore began posting about her and GP notes detailed her attempted suicide several weeks later.
Unsurprisingly, Jolyon Maugham will vigorously defend Ms Phillimore’s claim. No further comment will be made at this time.
Ms Phillimore is represented by Elliot Hammer of Branch Austin McCormick (who is also acting for Sophie Corcoran in her action against 10,000 Interns). Mr Maugham will be represented by Good Law Project and Jonathan Price KC.”
A Doughty Street Chambers barrister alongside the might of the Good Law Project. What could go wrong…
Andy Burnham may be measuring the No10 curtains but he hasn’t done all the legal tidying up before he returns to high office. He’s trying to gather email addresses through his campaign site, which could well be useful in any Labour leadership election…
The site’s privacy policy nominates “Office of Andy Burnham Ltd” as the data controller. That company does not exist…
Nor is the operation registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office – a must for politicians who data-gather. Manchester Analytica, that’s what they’re calling it…
Word reaches Guido that the government intends to publish a green paper on the future of broadcasting in the UK either in the coming week or the week after. More Ofcom expansion and pot shots at right-of-centre outlets incoming…
The main news, however, is set to be a range of measures to force private social media companies to ‘give prominence’ to public service content. Translated, that means giving the BBC preference in search results and on the algorithm of video sites such as YouTube. It’s not as if the BBC already has total dominance of the broadcast market or anything, holding as it does more than 75% of average viewing time…
Other platforms like TikTok will likely be affected. Could the timing have anything to do with the fact that YouTube overtook the total audience reach of the BBC recently?
Forcing British consumers to consume BBC and other public broadcasting content while they browse their phones is yet another government intervention in the free media market. It’s bad for content creators, will only increase antipathy to the BBC, and is an infringement on the freedom of scrollers everywhere. Starmer wants a legacy to justify his two disastrous years in Number 10. This is what it looks like…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”