Briefing war spotlights relationships between three of Labour’s most senior figures

One way to flush out a leadership challenger, according to Gordon Brown’s one-time enforcer, is to push them over the edge.In his chronicle of his time at the centre of power, Damian McBride wrote that the New Labour darling David Miliband had a “tendency to treat rebellion like a reluctant bather inching his way into the sea at Skegness”.“It made sense to push him right in at the outset, on the grounds that he’d run straight back to his towel, and not try again for at least six months,” McBride wrote.Some insiders believe this was the strategy behind an extraordinary decision by Keir Starmer’s closest allies to accuse Wes Streeting of leading an advanced plot to replace him as prime minister.The flaw in that plan – obvious to all who have had even fleeting contact with Streeting – is that far from reluctantly dipping his toe in, the health secretary embraces any chance to position himself for the leadership with the confidence and fervour of an Olympic diver

Keir Starmer expresses ‘sincere regret’ over appointment of Labour donor to football watchdog

Keir Starmer has said he made a mistake in rubber-stamping the appointment of the first head of the new football regulator given both his own connections to football and the fact the successful candidate had donated money to him in the past.Starmer expressed “sincere regret” to Laurie Magnus, his independent adviser on ministerial standards, regarding the appointment of David Kogan. It followed an apology to the prime minister by Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, who had also received a donation from Kogan.In a letter to Magnus published by Downing Street on Wednesday, Starmer said the decision to appoint Kogan – a media executive whose career has included negotiating TV rights deals for the Premier League and the English Football League – as chair of the independent football regulator was, under law, a decision for Nandy.Given his interest in football, and the hospitality he has received from football clubs and the Football Association, Starmer wrote, he agreed with Magnus in autumn last year to recuse himself from decisions relating to the new regulator, saying he had abided by this

Will Nigel Farage embrace Europe, following Giorgia Meloni’s lead? | Letter

I am sure Nigel Farage will be delighted at the comparison with Giorgia Meloni, who moved from far-right Mussolini-heritage politics to becoming prime minister of Italy (Can Nigel Farage emulate success enjoyed by Italy’s far-right Giorgia Meloni? 9 November).The way she did this was to snuggle up to Mario Draghi, Italy’s and the European Union’s No 1 banker, who coached her in lines to take. So she ditched her hostility to the EU and support for dropping the euro to return to the lira. She found fault with Vladimir Putin. She sought collaborative solutions with other European leaders to the arrivals of boat people

No 10 says Starmer has confidence in Morgan McSweeney after PM condemns attacks on cabinet members – as it happened

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s press secretary said that Keir Starmer does have confidence in Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff.The press secretary also said that Starmer was not contemplating standing down. She said:He has always been very clear that he will continue to serve as prime minister at the next election, that this is a project which is about a decade of national renewal, because that’s what it takes to turn the country around after 14 years of failure from the Tories.She also said Starmer valued the views of Labour MPs.Our Labour MPs are fantastic champions of the work that the government is doing to deliver for the British people

British Medical Association ‘threat to future of NHS’, says Streeting ahead of doctors’ strike

The British Medical Association is acting like a cartel and its “antics” are endangering the NHS’s future, the health secretary has said before the latest doctors’ strike begins on Friday.Wes Streeting launched his most strongly worded attack yet on the doctors’ union, coming close to accusing resident doctors in England of being greedy in their pay demands.He told the BMA to “get real”, made clear that ministers would not be “held to ransom” and claimed the association wanted other workers to pay higher taxes to give doctors higher salaries but lobbied against medics being taxed more themselves.His pointed comments received loud applause from an audience of NHS leaders, who are bracing themselves for the five-day strike by resident – formerly junior – doctors. It will be their 13th since they began a campaign for “full pay restoration” in March 2023

Keir Starmer and his team mount a leadership challenge … to himself | John Crace

Sometimes what you see is what you get. Usually in Westminster things happen for a reason. The logic may not be obvious but if you use your imagination you can come up with some logic for someone doing something that appears to be batshit crazy. But just occasionally, you reach a singularity on the space-time continuum where the laws of physics break down and nothing makes sense. A state of Platonic batshitness