Starmer brings in Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to ease pressure on him to resign
Keir Starmer has brought in Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers in a move to ease the mounting pressure on the prime minister to resign after the disastrous election results for Labour,Brown, the former prime minister and long-serving chancellor under Tony Blair, has been made Starmer’s envoy on global finance, with a brief to advise on financial partnerships to help with defence-related investments, particularly with Europe,Harman, who was Labour’s deputy leader under Brown, will be the prime minister’s adviser on women and girls, focusing on tackling violence and improving economic opportunities,While the roles are part-time and unpaid, there is deliberate symbolism in Starmer gathering Labour heavyweights around him as he battles to save his job, particularly with the optics of Brown being pictured with him at Downing Street on Saturday morning,With the bulk of the votes now counted from Thursday’s series of elections, Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors across England, shedding support to Reform UK and the Greens in traditional heartlands.
In Wales, the party lost power for the first time, plummeting to just nine Senedd seats behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, while also losing ground in the Scottish parliament,While none of Starmer’s cabinet have yet moved, other Labour MPs have called on him to set a date to hand over the leadership, including Clive Betts, the long-serving Sheffield South East MP, and Debbie Abrahams, for Oldham East and Saddleworth,Abrahams told the BBC on Saturday morning she hoped Starmer would “always put the country first” given the electoral threat from Reform,“We have to recognise the dangers that we’re in now, that on this trajectory it doesn’t look good,” Asked how quickly he should consider departing, Abrahams said: “I think it is a matter of months.
”In a post on X, Tony Vaughan, the Labour MP for Folkestone who was first elected in 2024, said there “must be an orderly transition of leadership well before the local elections next year”.He added: “Some say we will look like the Tories if we change leader.But would they have done better if they’d kept Boris in despite partygate? Or kept Truss after she crashed the economy?”Starmer has been defended by others in Labour, including Harman and Lucy Powell, the party’s deputy leader who told the BBC it was time to end “this incessant speculation” about Starmer’s position.“What I would say to people is, thinking that setting out some kind of timetable would put to bed issues of leadership, is actually the wrong conclusion here, because all that would do is [set] the starting gun of a, quite honestly, very distracting and ongoing debate about leadership,” Powell said.Powell confirmed that she would want Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, to be allowed to stand for parliament, but said this should not involve Burnham then challenging Starmer.
“We don’t do hospital takeovers in the Labour party.It’s not what we’re about.”Starmer will try to relaunch his premiership on Monday with a speech expected to set out a call for closer ties with the EU.Brown’s new role ties in with this in part.A Downing Street statement said the former prime minister would be “tasked with developing new international finance partnerships that can support defence and security-related investment, including measures that underpin the UK’s relationship with Europe”.
A No 10 statement said Harman would “advise the PM on how to galvanise government to deliver for women and girls”.It added: “She will work with ministers across government to drive an impactful agenda focusing on tackling violence against women and girls, unlocking economic opportunity and improving representation.”
Lacunar strokes caused by widening of arteries in brain, study suggests
The cause of a type of stroke that affects about 35,000 people across the UK each year has been uncovered by researchers and may explain why some medications are ineffective as treatment.Lacunar strokes, which account for a quarter of all strokes in the UK, had been linked to the blockage of arteries in the brain by fatty deposits.However, a study published on Wednesday suggests they are not caused by blocked arteries but by the enlargement and widening of arteries in the brain.This would help to explain why aspirin and other blood thinners, commonly used to prevent ischaemic strokes, are not as effective in preventing lacunar stroke.The research by academics at the University of Edinburgh and the UK Dementia Research Institute analysed 229 patients who had experienced either a lacunar or mild non-lacunar stroke
Attempts to stop prison drone drug deliveries hampered by crumbling Victorian walls
Weak and crumbling walls in Victorian prisons are hampering attempts to halt drones from delivering drugs and weapons to inmates.Plans to install tougher netting and window grilles to stop drones from entering have been hampered because the walls have been unable to take the extra weight, prison governors said.Recent attempts to fix anti-drone netting at HMP Pentonville, the Victorian prison in north London, were stalled after they found that the bricks were too soft, sources have said.Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales, said last month that the Prison Service had “ceded the airspace above many of our prisons to serious organised crime”, resulting in a “national security threat”.The number of incidents at prisons involving drones has risen by more than 1,000% over four years, with gang members able to fly packages carried by drones direct to cell windows
MPs v the manosphere: ministers battle misogyny as they take a different message to men and boys across Australia
“Gender equality isn’t women versus men or a zero-sum game,” Ged Kearney says.“It delivers better outcomes for everyone. It’s important that, as we engage with men and boys, we make that really clear.”But as the assistant minister for the prevention of family violence sets off on a national listening tour with the special envoy for men’s health, Dan Repacholi, they are up against a pervasive and very different conception of how men and women relate, fostered by the loud voices of the manosphere and men’s rights activists.For decades, those activists have called for Australia to have a minister for men
Black people in England twice as likely to suffer stroke as white counterparts
People from black backgrounds in England are twice as likely to experience strokes as their white counterparts, while also being less likely to receive timely care, according to the largest study of its kind.The study, conducted by researchers at King’s College London and presented at the European Stroke Organisation conference, analysed 30 years of stroke incidents from the South London Stroke Register, one of the longest-running population-based stroke registers in the world.The register is unique due to the fact that unlike clinical trials, it recruits every single person who has had a stroke in a defined area.Within a population of 333,000 people, according to the analysis, 7,726 strokes occurred. And while stroke incidence fell by 34% between 1995-99 and 2010-14, the rate rose again by 13% between 2020 and 2024
Prosecutors to ‘fast-track’ hate crime cases in England and Wales after spate of attacks
Prosecutors in England and Wales have been told to “fast-track” hate crime prosecutions after a spate of antisemitic attacks that the prime minister on Tuesday called a “crisis for all of us”.Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, issued guidance to his staff on Tuesday telling them to bring forward prosecutions against any sort of hate crime as quickly as they could, rather than waiting until they had gathered all possible evidence.Keir Starmer urged groups including universities, arts groups and charities to do more to tackle antisemitism during a summit in Downing Street.As well as imposing new reporting requirements on universities and the Arts Council, the prime minister threatened “consequences” against Iran if it was found to have been behind last week’s stabbing in Golders Green, north London.Parkinson said in a statement on Tuesday: “The acts of extreme violence and criminal damage that we have seen against the Jewish community in recent months have been deplorable
Rage workouts: the best way to exercise – or just infuriating?
Angry gym classes are booming, with activities including pummelling tyres with a sledgehammer. But they might not be as cathartic as they at first appearName: Rage workouts.Age: Would this be a good time to invoke Aristotle’s beliefs on catharsis?Appearance: Pumped-up, red-faced, veiny, on the brink of a disciplinary hearing.Is this about being angry at the gym? Because, this morning there was a guy just sitting, using his phone, on the machine I needed … You’re close, but you’re not quite right. This isn’t about getting angry while you’re exercising, it’s about getting angry in order to exercise
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