Political shenanigans

Fallout from the 7 May elections

May 16, 2026

Image: The Makerfield constituency - near Wigan.

7 May was explosive for the Labour government.

In what is generally seen as a verdict on Labour’s 22 months in office, the local government elections in England resulted in the party losing 1498 council seats with many of those seats being won by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party. As I noted on 9 May, ‘British politics has received a major shaking. Where the resultant waves will travel remains to be seen.’

The Labour Party could have taken time, perhaps a couple of weeks, to consider its response and that might have included making changes to the planned legislative programme for the 2026-27 parliamentary session. For example, dropping proposals to limit jury trial and to introduce Digital ID would have been welcome to many.

That was not to be. The King’s Speech went ahead as planned on 13 May and contained nothing to truly convince voters that anything will actually get better in their daily lives. Instead, Parliament will be flooded with over 30 Bills with the inevitable consequence that legislation will be rushed through without the necessary detailed scrutiny.

Notable Labour politicians then turned their guns on to the Prime Minister. Just like a panicking football club this had to become sack the manager time. No recognition here that change takes time and progress can be slow and incremental. In practice there are very few, if any, instant magic solutions.

The dam began to burst with resignations from a trickle of junior members of the government followed by the Health Minister (Wes Streeting MP) who published a letter stating - ‘ … we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday’ - Wes Streeting’s resignation letter and Keir Starmer’s response in full - BBC News.

The cracks in the dam widened with the announcement from Angela Rayner MP that she had been exonerated by HM Revenue and Customs over the stamp duty debacle that led to her resignation from government in September 2025. Whether she ought to have been exonerated is best left to one side but, almost miraculously, the door opened to her becoming a possible challenger to Starmer. For my part, I doubt that she has anything like the ability for the highest government office but she is feisty and undoubtedly has her supporters within the party.

Next is the current Mayor of Greater Manchester - Andy Burnham who served in the Blair and Brown Labour governments. The MP for Makerfield (Mr Josh Brown) offered to resign and create a by-election at which Burnham could stand if he is chosen as candidate by Labour’s National Executive Committee - Josh Simons explains why he stood down to make way for Andy Burnham - BBC News.

IF Burnham is elected he will then be able to challenge Starmer for the Party leadership but that is provided the requirements of the byzantine Labour Party Rule Book are met.

Burnham will probably have stiff competition from others within Labour who thirst for the keys to No 10 Downing Street even if it is objectively hard to identify an individual with both the necessary leadership ability and public appeal

IF Burnham is successful in such a leadership challenge then he would become Party Leader and, as happened when the Conservative Party replaced both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, he would become Prime Minister. The wider electorate will have had no say in any of it.

That may be the trajectory hoped for by Burnham and his supporters but the first major hurdle is that he must win the Makerfield seat and that is certainly NOT a foregone conclusion. Almost no parliamentary seat is safe and Reform UK (and other parties) will throw everything they have at winning.

According to Electoral Calculus - Makerfield Seat Details - Reform UK are likely to win the seat at the next general election. Josh Brown held the seat for Labour in 2024 but with a majority of 5399 and Reform came second. Far larger majorities have fallen at recent elections. Burnham therefore faces a formidable first challenge The election will be held on 18 June. It was not lost on some that the date is the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Obviously, this story is on-going ….. !

Links: that was the week that was ….

13 May 2026 - Read all the ministers’ resignation letters in full - BBC News - (resignations of junior members of government)

The King’s Speech 2026 - GOV.UK

14 May - Wes Streeting’s resignation letter and Keir Starmer’s response in full - BBC News

Labour MP to stand down to allow Burnham run for byelection amid leadership row | Andy Burnham | The Guardian

Angela Rayner resigned in 2024 over problems with her tax affairs (stamp duty). On 14 May it was announced that - Angela Rayner has been cleared of tax fraud - and something doesn’t add up.

15 May 2026 - How Rayner, Streeting and Burnham weakened PM in 12 hours of political drama - BBC News

16 May - Labour starts candidate selection process for Makerfield by-election as Burnham cleared to stand - follow live - BBC News

The Labour Party Rule Book (Chapter 4) sets out the party’s procedure for selecting the party leader.

Who could challenge Keir Starmer as prime minister? - BBC News

Seat Details - Makerfield