{"id":92256,"date":"2026-05-13T07:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92256"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:17:07","slug":"will-starmer-go-and-if-so-what-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/13\/will-starmer-go-and-if-so-what-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Starmer go, and if so what next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The Labour Party leadership question is very hard to avoid. The news is dominated by it. The government is being incapacitated by it. We have the farce of the King\u2019s Speech being presented today by a government that may not exist by the end of the week. And all the while, Starmer clings on, like a limpet desperate for its own survival, whatever the cost to anyone else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I will speculate on the reasons for that in another post to be published this morning, but at this moment I am genuinely interested in your opinion on a couple of issues, and I suspect that many of you will be as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There is so much uncertainty about what might happen that I hope you will take part in these two polls, in which I am seeking to find out what you think might happen and, if Starmer does go, who might replace him?<\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-395\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_395\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_395_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"e2e7f01f48\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"395\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Will Starmer go soon?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-395-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1745\" name=\"poll_395\" value=\"1745\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1745\">Yes<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1746\" name=\"poll_395\" value=\"1746\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1746\">No<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1747\" name=\"poll_395\" value=\"1747\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1747\">He'll cling on - it's what the powers that be want<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1748\" name=\"poll_395\" value=\"1748\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1748\">Not sure<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(395);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(395); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-395-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n\n<p>And then there is the question of who will replace him if he goes:<\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-396\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_396\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_396_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"7b62013662\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"396\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Who will replace him if Starmer goes<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-396-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1749\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1749\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1749\">Wes Streeting<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1750\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1750\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1750\">Angela Rayner<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1751\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1751\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1751\">Andy Burnham<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1752\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1752\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1752\">Ed Miliband<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1753\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1753\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1753\">Clive Lewis<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1754\" name=\"poll_396\" value=\"1754\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1754\">A N Other<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(396);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(396); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-396-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Labour Party leadership question is very hard to avoid. The news is dominated by it. The government is being incapacitated by it. We have<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/13\/will-starmer-go-and-if-so-what-next\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92260,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92256\/revisions\/92260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}