What the hell just happened?

They say a week in Politics is a long time. In fact, I think ‘they’ say it too much. It’s one of the most overused expressions in political commentary and Journalism. However, the reason its so oft quoted by politicians, pundits and punters alike is because it’s true.

This past week has felt long and it may be one of the busiest I’ve had since leaning into work as a broadcaster full time over 3 years ago. After spending over 24 hours awake at studios in London for the coverage of the Scottish, Welsh and English local elections last Thursday, I thought that the week following the results would be quieter or at least slower. However, the only thing that has been slow this week, is the rate at which Keir Starmer’s Government has been falling to pieces.

Yesterday I did 22 broadcast appearances in one day. The day before I did 17. I feel like I have never been away from the BBC studios, where I have just returned from again (Friday) after dissecting the current political situation on the breakfast radio programmes from 6am onwards.

This weekend, I intend to have a break and actually turn down (yeah right) most broadcast requests. But before I log off tonight and come back next week refreshed and reinvigorated , I wanted to write you, my lovely substackers, a report on what has happened and what might happen next in the political circus that UK Politics has become since those elections last week.

While this Substack was never intended to report the news to you, it is intended for me to share my take on things as they develop, especially things I don’t have the time to delve into on broadcast media.

Let’s quickly recap the major events that have happened since the elections here in the UK and I’ll give you my take on the current situation before briefly exploring what could happen next.

• After the devastating set of election results for the Labour Party, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was not considering his position while also accepting the results were terrible and very difficult for his Government.

• A relatively known Labour MP called Catherine West called for Starmer to resign and for the Cabinet to re-appoint someone else without a leadership contest. She gave them until Monday (11th May) to do this or she said she would seek the 81 nominations (20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) to trigger a leadership election.

• On Monday night, as Starmer wasn’t budging, 4 junior Government Ministers resigned while calling for him to go. Because of their close connections to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, it was believed he would be resigning and challenging Starmer once he found the 81 names to nominate him. But Wes didn’t make a sound. Instead, the weekly Cabinet Meeting rolled around at 9am on Tuesday morning and the media gathered outside Downing Street.

• Reported afterwards, at Cabinet, Starmer told his Ministers that he wasn’t going anywhere and that there was a process for challenging a leader and no one had triggered it. He told any of them to come to see him if they had an issue. Then promptly moved on to talk about the situation in Iran.

• Following Cabinet, Wes Streeting left in a hurry and booked a meeting in with the PM for the following morning. Starmer’s loyal ministers came out to meet the press and the cameras and echoed his calls for unity and continuation.

• The next day came and it wasn’t just any old day, it was State Opening of Parliament, which happens at the start of every new Parliamentary term. The King comes to the House of Lords to read a speech written by the Prime Minister outlining his ambitions for this Parliament. It was as embarrassing as you would expect but perhaps because of this, no moves were made until that evening when rumours circulated that Wes Streeting was planning to resign.

• Thursday started with silence from Streeting but news from Angela Rayner, the former Deputy Prime Minister long expected to run for leader too. Angela had been held back by her former resignation over unpaid tax allegations relating to a home she purchased. Her news on Thursday morning (well timed) was that she had been cleared of wrongdoing in the investigation and was clear to stand for election if she so wished. Silence continued from Streeting until eventually he did resign, saying he had lost confidence in Starmer but crucially he did not trigger the leadership election formally (supposedly because he lacks the names). No other resignations followed and Streeting was replaced by a different Minister.

• Then the closest thing Britain has to a celebrity politican; Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, announced he had found an MP (Josh Simons) to stand down and trigger a by-election that Burnham would then seek to be Labour’s candidate in. Last time he tried this, Starmer blocked him and was criticised heavily for it. Burnham is seen as a king over the water, awaiting a coronation as the labour leader if he returns to Parliament (you have to be a member of parliament to lead the party and the country).

• Starmer announced he wouldnt back burnham and to face the reality with projected dignity and ‘inclusion’ Wes Streeting agreed that Burnham should return and then have a leadership election where they all slug it out together.

• So as it stands, Burnham is standing to become a Labour MP again (if he gets selected as labours candidate and then crucially, wins, what will be a tough by-election as Reform UK are only 5000 votes behind labour in this seat)

• The sitting Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in office but not in power. Wes Streeting is preparing his campaign to be leader and Angela Rayner is considering her options, as she favours Burnham over even herself.

• Wes Streeting bad. No core beliefs or values driving his politics. Empty, opportunistic and ambitious in all the wrong ways. Would pull Labour even further to the right.

• Angela Rayner, excellent candidate, I like her a lot and would support her leadership but doesn’t seem confident in going for it. I think could play a big role in a Burnham leadership.

• Andy Burnham, if he can beat Reform UK in the Makerfield by-election, he can do it as Prime Minister and would be my choice. But there’s a road ahead for him with several hurdles on it before that can happen.

• Keir Starmer, needs to get out the way and leave office with grace and dignity. However, he seems oblivious still to the political reality that he is finished.

We await more developments but I will be back to my usual schedule (possibly even busier) from next week and will no doubt be writing up some thoughts as we go.

In the meantime you can follow me at jmatthewsonofficial on instagram where I post regularly with updates about my broadcast work and other writing.

I hope this very brief update from this very tired guy is helpful and my advice for keeping up to date with these developments is always for Sky News and check out articles and polling being published at Labour List to get an insight into which candidates could come forward in the weeks and (probably) months ahead.