Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Keir Starmer fought back to tell people at a community centre in Hertfordshire that he was feeling fine after yesterday's near-death experience. 

It was not a wholly convincing performance, but he came across as someone who cared, and who was going to "fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them".

So much so that Sean O'Grady wondered if the "coup that never was" could be exactly what the prime minister needed. 

I am not so sure. I have written that Angela Rayner is winning the undeclared leadership contest with Wes Streeting and Ed Miliband, and will succeed the next time Starmer stumbles.

And the fightback lasted only as long as it took for Matthew Doyle, a new peer, to quit the Labour Party over his past support for a paedophile councillor in Scotland.   

If Keir Starmer is prime minister on 18 March, which of his predecessors will he have outlasted?

Answer at the bottom of today's email 

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Will Keir Starmer resign as prime minister and who could replace him?

Will the prime minister will cling on to his job – the question has been asked more insistently since Morgan McSweeney's resignation, write Athena Stavrou and Millie Cooke...

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QUOTATION OF THE DAY

There are some people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them

Keir Starmer

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Quiz answer: Rishi Sunak

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