© picture alliance / NurPhoto | WIktor Szymanowicz
With Prime Minister Starmer under increasing pressure after his crushing defeat in local elections, two Labour politicians are warming up to his succession. A British return to the European Union is no longer inconceivable.
Who should succeed Keir Starmer as British prime minister? Two politicians seem most likely to take over Labour's leadership (and premiership): Wes Streeting, former health minister, and Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester.
Streeting draws the European card that Starmer was afraid to play: the UK must rejoin the European Union. According to him, only a United Kingdom in the European Union can protect its trade and economy from "Russian aggression and America first," as he declared last weekend. Furthermore, he calls for reforms to the NHS, more defense spending and deregulation.
Burnham opts for a decidedly left-wing program: water, energy, housing and transportation should be returned to state ownership, on the model of his successful approach to bus transportation in Greater Manchester.
Meanwhile, the far right is marching through the streets: some 60,000 demonstrators marched through London on Sunday behind activist Tommy Robinson, using Islamophobic and nationalist rhetoric. Labour is being drained simultaneously from the left (the Greens) and from the right (Reform UK): that too will be a tough challenge for the new leader.
Picture: © picture alliance / NurPhoto | WIktor Szymanowicz