UK politics: Labour MP calls for Starmer’s resignation to end ‘psychodrama’ – as it happened

The Labour MP Jonathan Brash, who was elected in 2024 for Hartlepool (Peter Mandelson’s old seat), has told GB News that he thinks Keir Starmer should resign.He claimed that Starmer’s resignation was now inevitable, and that the distraction provided by the Mandelson scandal was making it hard for the government to do its job.He said:double quotation markI’ve got to be clear, I am completely fed up to the back teeth of this psychodrama in Westminster, the own goals that are coming from the heart of this government.Meanwhile, we’ve got fantastic Labour councillors, canvassers, activists up and down the country, working hard and delivering for their constituencies, like mine in Hartlepool, facing local elections in the shadow of this absolute mess. They just need to get a grip

No one can look Starmer in the eye … and the Mandy saga is not going away | John Crace

This is the end, beautiful friend. It is the tragedy of almost all prime ministers that they are the last person to realise the game is up. Their race is run. The backbenchers are the first to know. They spend time in their constituencies

Britain’s military dependence on US ‘no longer tenable’, says former Nato chief

Britain’s high military dependence on the US is “no longer tenable” and the UK has to become increasingly independent of the special relationship with Washington, a former Nato chief has said.George Robertson, who last week accused British leaders of a “corrosive complacency” towards defence, said on Wednesday that the traditional allies were diverging over values – and that even after Donald Trump leaves the White House, the separation was likely to continue.Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence minister and Nato secretary general, highlighted Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran, his decision to levy tariffs on traditional allies and, “most jarringly”, he said, the threat to wrest Greenland from Denmark.“All of these illustrate a growing divergence between Westminster and Washington,” Robertson said at a seminar at the Chatham House thinktank.He said the diplomatic tone from the White House had “reached a historic low point” with Trump’s repeated public criticisms of the UK

How Olly Robbins’ knightly charm glossed over burning questions on Mandelson vetting

The verdict on Sir Olly Robbins’ parliamentary testimony, among fellow knights of the civil service realm at least, was unanimous. Mark Sedwill, a former cabinet secretary, called on the prime minister to “retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him”.Sir Simon McDonald, who once held Robbins’ job as top civil servant in the Foreign Office, said if Keir Starmer had only waited to hear his evidence to the foreign affairs select committee he would never have sacked him.Even heavyweights in the media class seemed satisfied with Robbins’ decision to grant Peter Mandelson developed vetting clearance, and not tell Starmer he had done so against the advice of the official vetting agency. The former BBC journalist Jon Sopel declared while watching the evidence: “I am seeing the very best of the civil service

Taxes on UK workers have risen at fastest rate in rich world, says OECD

Taxes on workers in Britain rose at the fastest rate among the world’s richest economies last year, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.With Labour under pressure on the economy amid the Iran war, the OECD said a key measure of the total tax paid by workers and their employers rose by the most in the 38-member club of rich nations in 2025.In its annual study of taxes on work across the developed world, the Paris-based organisation said Britain’s “tax wedge” increased by 2.45 percentage points last year.The tax wedge estimates total taxes on labour paid by employees and employers, minus cash benefits received by working households – in effect the gap between what an employer pays to hire a worker and what that person takes home in net pay

Jennie Formby, Labour’s former general secretary, says she has joined Greens

A former Labour general secretary has defected to the Green party, in the latest sign that allies of Jeremy Corbyn are moving in large numbers to Zack Polanski’s party.Jennie Formby, who managed the Labour party from 2018 to 2020, told the Guardian she had signed up as a Green party member and intended to campaign for it before May’s local elections.Formby is the latest senior ally of Corbyn to defect to the Greens, even as the former Labour leader tries to establish Your Party, his own leftwing alternative to Labour.The defection of figures such as Formby, the former Labour adviser James Meadway and the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll offers the Greens a policy and organisational heft they previously lacked, but also threatens to distance the party from its environmental roots.Formby said: “Zack and the Greens are not scared to talk about economic justice and tax increases