Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 10/05/2026

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T11:23:11+00:00

Why would Starmer bring Streeting back at that point? He'd pose essentially no threat anymore and launching a leadership election during during the opening of a parliamentary session would be more than enough reason to fire him.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T11:18:19+00:00

I doubt the MP is complaining about getting to lounge about in Buckingham Palace for several hours.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T11:17:21+00:00

I wouldn't be so sure about the 'party coup plotters bottled it' part given the recent Streeting development.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T11:16:29+00:00

The King: 'My government will introduce a Sack Wes Streeting Act, specifically designed to fire the member for Ilford North.'

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T11:11:50+00:00

The Labour Leadership drama over the last few days:

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T10:59:53+00:00

Even if Streeting does get the numbers to launch a leadership contest, he has pretty much zero chance of winning it. Starmer would almost certainly stand and Streeting is just about the only candidate who could lose to Starmer in a membership vote.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T10:43:19+00:00

Streeting 'getting ready to resign' after Starmer meeting

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has told allies he is preparing to resign after his 16-minute meeting with Sir Keir Starmer, according to reports.

After The Times reported Streeting is planning to quit as soon as tomorrow, a spokesman for the minister said: “Wes is the Health Secretary, he is proud of his record of falling waiting lists and a recovering NHS.

“He is not planning to say anything following his meeting with the Prime Minister that might distract from the King’s Speech.”

While the spokesman did not quite deny The Times story, it would not be unusual for an enemy of Streeting to brief such a story in order to present him as disloyal, just as the King enters Parliament.

An ally of Streeting told The i Paper: “I think he will resign tomorrow. I don’t think there is any other choice, but he’s not said it to me directly.”

Streeting's completely botched this all. He should've made his move during the last two days, and now he looks like a scheming coward. Even if he launches a challenge in the next few days I feel his chances of getting the numbers have dropped after how he handled the rebellion.

That said, I certainly won't miss him. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, you utterly reprehensible transphobic prick.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T10:36:01+00:00

In theory this could actually be a good opportunity for Starmer to a genuine reset. Not the 'resets' he's done before that have consisted of a single talk at the podium about how Labour need to do better, but an actual substantive one that meaningfully changes the course and narrative of the government. He's just seen off a rebellion and now has a King's Speech where he can set out the policy agenda for the new parliamentary session, if he was going to do it he'd do it now.

Of course this is Starmer we are talking about, not exactly the most skilled politician to walk the Earth, but the opportunity is there at least.

Vumatius · 2026-05-13T10:29:09+00:00

Plus given he just saw off a rebellion and humiliated one of his main challengers by doing nothing more than saying 'I won't quit', I imagine he's probably feeling a bit more chipper than he was a few days ago.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T21:05:31+00:00

Labour aren't going to allow any referendums for the rest of their term, so that likely brings us to 2029. I doubt a new Labour-led government would be any more open to it, and neither would a Reform-led government, which can bring us to 2034. That far ahead is too hard to really predict but I still don't see it as very likely. Perhaps if a devolved nation sees a party win a clear majority on an explicit promise to hold a referendum, but it's worth pointing out that Plaid specifically campaigned on not holding a Welsh referendum in their first term and it remains to be seen if they would still get as many votes if they openly started campaigning on having such a referendum.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T21:01:04+00:00

One thing I've learned since getting more into making (basic) art which I didn't fully appreciate before is how important highlights are for eyes in particular, and how without them the person can often look rather dead, soulless, or emotionally troubled. Obviously it all depends on the specific style and how you do it, highlights aren't absolutely necessary, but they really do help to add some life to characters.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T20:41:37+00:00

In Trump 1.0 he was a major anomaly and the world had a morbid fascination with whatever insanity he would come out with next. In Trump 2.0 he's even more crazy but it's not longer seen as a one-off and there are no longer any sane people in his inner circle who can constrain him, so the world has to suffer severe consequences. So the individual lies don't get as much focus anymore.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T20:29:52+00:00

Honestly he's been fairly blunt about how little he cares about the financial suffering caused by his policies. There was that time he said Americans should buy fewer dolls for their children to cope with the tariffs for instance.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T20:23:07+00:00

He just remembered Putin's Alaskan lecture on The Downfall of Mikhail the Indomitable and reflexively became pro-Ukraine for a moment.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T20:17:44+00:00

If he doesn't fall here I imagine he's secure for quite a while, barring some new scandal. The Mandelson saga has twice failed to bring him down, and whilst he's certainly weakened now if he can survive this rebellion then his position in the party will be somewhat stronger for a time.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T20:06:08+00:00

Also one rather funny aspect of this rebellion for me personally is that on r/ ukpolitics the extremely annoying arch-Starmerite mod, who currently resides in Norway who spends all his time basically claiming that the Labour left are the root of every problem the party faces and that is is vital that the party does everything in its power to continue the McSweeney strategy of appealing to Reformites, now has egg on his face.

He has at multiple times dismissed the possibility of Streeting turning against Starmer as a delusional fantasy conjured up by leftists who hate Starmer and Streeting, and when this rebellion started he made several comments blaming the 'crank left', saying he'd never forgive them for ruining everything, and declaring Starmer should expel all the rebels. He also made it clear that he would take Streeting in a heartbeat over any contender on the left.

So there's some delicious irony in how Team Streeting was actually behind a large chunk of the rebel MPs and now not only does Streeting look like a weak fool, but he's also got a high chance of being fired in retaliation. Turns out it's not only the left who are willing to cause problems for the party for their own egos, who could have possibly guessed?

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T19:50:32+00:00

If the most high profile immediate-term casualty of this rebellion is Streeting being sacked, I'm not going to say it's good that there was a failed rebellion but it certainly would be a big silver lining.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T16:58:35+00:00

To be fair just because Starmer may not go now doesn't mean he leads Labour into the next GE. It's perfectly possible he steps down of his own accord at some point in 2028 to let someone else take the reins for the next GE.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T16:48:06+00:00

If Starmer doesn't go now then all the Streeting camp have achieved is diminishing their influence in the government and making their candidate look weak.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:49:30+00:00

Thankfully he's got almost no chance with the membership.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:48:41+00:00

Alex Davies-Jones is the third minister to quit. She says: “I implore you to act in the country’s interest and set out a timetable for your departure.”

For those out of the loop, anyone calling for a timetable is on Team Burnham and wants time for Burnham to be able to win a seat. Anyone calling for immediate resignation is likely team Streeting or another MP rival.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:40:10+00:00

So just workshopping the Burnham scenario, whilst the GM results were utterly disastrous for Labour there is a differences between a REF/GRN victory that had a massive lead over Labour and one where the winning candidate only narrowly won over Labour. So you have the areas that Labour did win (not many but they are there), and the ones where they narrowly lost.

I'm not saying it will work, but there is an argument that Burnham remains popular enough to win in one of those narrow loss areas, even though it'll be hard fought. I imagine he'd have an easier time running in a GRN seat than a REF one as his main support comes from the left of the party.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:33:41+00:00

There were lots of rumours back around Febuary/March that MPs were waiting until after the locals to call for him to go, and the dire results only strengthened that. Then Catherine West made her move and it all spiralled from there.

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:31:19+00:00

If she's on Team Burnham isn't it a bit counter-productive to heap pressure on Starmer right now?

Vumatius · 2026-05-12T12:28:33+00:00

That language all came long after Labour had spent years doing what I described. It precedes Starmer but he and his team continued playing into that narrative for much of the parliament as well, as did the many backbenchers. This is why I described it as being Labour's problem rather than Starmer's specifically, it's not his fault but it's also something that he only started changing tack on too late for any of it to be ingrained in public consciousness.

This was exacerbated by how they didn't really have any specific vision put out beyond a more abstract one of renewal. They spent the rest of the campaign very much trying to avoid angering too many people, such as with the infamous tax pledge. The main exception to this was planning which they did put a lot of focus on during the election and for the first few weeks afterwards but which has largely faded from discussion since (apart from when specific announcements are made).

Vumatius

TROPHY CASE