Teesside politics expert: 'Labour needs to get core voters back'
Sir Keir Starmer set out a timetable for his resignation yesterday
A politics expert in Teesside has been reacting to the news of Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister.
It comes as Andy Burnham, the man on course to be the UK's fifth prime minister in four years was sworn in as an MP yesterday afternoon.
He's put his name down to potentially become Starmer's replacement, days after winning the Makerfield by-election.
Wes Streeting - seen as his main rival - is backing Burnham.
Dr. Tim Ellis-Dale, a lecturer in history and politics at Teesside University, said: "I think everyone kind of knew that this was happening. It was a question of when, as opposed to if.
"I think his grip on power, I think it looked quite shaky really from the start of the year, maybe even from about 2025. But I think after the local election results, there was kind of a sense that this is going to happen probably within this year.
"I think I think for the UK it's business as usual now, we're used to this. I think things will kind of continue onwards from an international standpoint. It's interesting that there's going to be kind of a NATO as well as a Europe UK-EU summit over the next couple of weeks, so that's going to create some issues as well when you've got an outgoing Prime Minister and an incoming one.
"The incoming Prime Minister is going to probably be someone who's probably going to want to take a harder stance on Donald Trump. You know, being friendly with Trump, I don't think has won Starmer necessarily any kind of favours. I think he's alienated a lot of his own kind of support on the left of British politics, whilst really kind of not really particularly winning any over on the right by doing that.
"There are major structural and international issues that are not necessarily in Labour's control, so I think it's going to be a sense of recognising what Labour can't do. I think one of the things that Labour can do, and I think this is probably something Andy Burnham will be able to do quite well, is to just be better at communicating with the public what the government is doing, what its achievements are. I don't think Starmer's been particularly strong about that.
"The really hard work is going to come from doing hard, serious policy and it's going to come from things like thinking about tackling social care. How do you get deficit down? How do we raise more taxes? How do we spend more money on defence? And these are difficult things that do not have straightforward answers.
"Starmer's policy over the past two years has essentially been trying to court socially conservative voters who might be in favour of voting Reform and that just hasn't happened. What Starmer has done, I think, has alienated quite a few voters on the left. So I think one of the things to do is try and get your core voters back and then think about how you can wage swing voters."
As the former Greater Manchester mayor arrived in London, he said calling a general election would be "jumping too far ahead".
Reform's Nigel Farage is demanding one.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is asking: "What are we waiting for?"
Tim added: "There's probably very little reason for Andy Burnham to call the general election because at the moment the opinion polls are not looking good for Labour. And you could also argue that there isn't a particular reason for Labour to need to call the general election because it's still got a massive majority to get things done. And it's also a parliamentary party that, at the moment, looks hugely supportive of Andy Burnham.
"There's very little reason for Labour to do it in the first place, and we always kind of have this sort of conversation every time we get a change of Prime Minister in the middle of a Parliament, 'oh, well, you know, we need to have a general election.'
"We have a parliamentary system of Government. We vote for MPs, we don't vote for a Prime Minister, we don't live in a presidential system, so there's no reason to have a general election because there's been a change in Prime Minister, and there's plenty of precedent for that.
"Two things might happen in the general election campaign, and that is that the Labour vote share will probably recover a little bit. I also think we shouldn't count out the Conservatives at this stage, because the Conservatives are one of the most successful political parties in the kind of western democratic world, and I think it would be a real mistake to count them out at this stage."
Tim tells us his thoughts on Reform possibly coming into power: "We're probably on track, and this is assuming nothing changes, for a hung parliament with Reform as the largest party likely relying on the Conservatives to basically pass legislation. And that would create all sorts of kind of drama and uncertainties and, you know, things to think about.
"There's also lots of questions about what Reform might want to do in Government in areas that they don't talk about. You know, they talk a lot about immigration, they talk a little bit about foreign affairs. But would Reform be kind of a libertarian right-wing party who would really seek to shrink back the state and cut back spending? Or would it be more of a kind of a communitarian right-wing party that's seeking to appeal to the working class?"
Earlier, Sir Keir says he'd step down as PM and Labour leader with "good grace".
Speaking in Downing Street, he said he accepted he wasn't the right person to steer the party into the next general election.
If there is a leadership challenge rather than a coronation, nominations will open on the 9th of July.
Candidates must have the backing of 81 MPs - a fifth of Labour's parliamentary total - to stand.