Markus Andrews

One of Sir Keir Starmer’s top aides has quit after it emerged he had exchanged sexually explicit messages about the veteran left-wing MP Diane Abbott. In a fresh blow to the beleaguered prime minister, Paul Ovenden announced he was leaving his role as Downing Street’s director of strategy to avoid becoming a “distraction” after the 2017 messages were uncovered. The former journalist, who has worked for Labour for more than a decade, had reportedly exchanged emails with a colleague at the time that included sexually explicit remarks about Ms Abbott.Paul Ovenden’s departure is a fresh blow to the prime minister More

Keir Starmer’s “phase two” government reset would not have started this badly in his worst nightmares. Losing his deputy prime minister, his US ambassador and seeing more than 100,000 right-wing protesters take to the streets of London has prompted serious questions over his future, and whether or not he is the right person to lead Labour into the next election.Speculation about a future successor is rife, and the name on many lips is one that will be welcome news to many – but perhaps none more so than Nigel Farage, whose week has already got off to an excellent start as he welcomes his first Tory MP defector.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is a former cabinet minister, articulate and charismatic – and would certainly represent a fresh start for this Labour government.Unfortunately, though, his route back to parliament to enable him to be prime minister represents a massive opportunity for Reform.Andy Burnham is a popular alternative to Starmer More

Reform UK has secured its first defection from a sitting Conservative MP as Danny Kruger joined Nigel Farage’s party. The East Wiltshire MP has joined Reform to head up its preparations for government, becoming the latest in a series of high-profile former ministers to join the party and taking the number of Reform MPs to five.Mr Kruger said there is a “crisis in the economy, crisis at the border, crisis in our streets and a crisis in our military”.He said Britain “is not broken, but it is badly damaged” and that “something has got to give”.Asked about the defection of Kruger, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the party “is not going to get blown off course by these sorts of incidents”.The defection represents a huge crisis for Ms Badenoch’s beleaguered leadership of the party, with Mr Kruger previously seen as hugely influential.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage with the former Conservative MP during a press conference in Westminster on Monday More

Nigel Farage announced that Conservative MP Danny Kruger defected to Reform UK on Monday, 15 September.In his first speech, the MP for East Wiltshire announced that the Tory party was “over.”The Reform UK leader said Mr Kruger would head up the party’s preparations for government.It comes as a number of Conservative figures have defected to Reform UK including Dame Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory party chair Sir Jake Berry and former Wales secretary David Jones.Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, an MP for Mid Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023, revealed her decision to defect in a column for the Daily Mail before appearing at Reform UK’s party conference.“The time for action is now and I believe that the only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage. Nigel and I will never agree about everything. Neither of us are political robots,” she wrote.Ms Dorries also said that “it’s time for change” and “time to make Britain great again”, declaring the Tory party “dead”.She wrote: “My decision to leave the party I’ve served for more than 30 years is possibly the most difficult I’ve ever had to make, and it has taken me 12 agonising months to reach.” More

Peter Mandelson has learned that favours for, and loyalty to, a sex offender can end a sticky career. Keir Starmer, this week, is bringing the King himself into a bid to charm another American who’s been found liable for sexual assault, convicted of felonies, and is a serial bankrupt.Mandelson oiled up to Jeffrey Epstein because Britain’s former ambassador to Washington has always seemingly been mesmerised by power and money.Starmer has organised Donald Trump’s state visit, pomp, parades and banquets as a strategic necessity – to wean the US president off the Russian teat. To protect Britain’s economy from the US president. And to protect the UK and Europe from a surge in Trumpian ideologues at home.Trump, for now, has slapped the UK with 10 per cent tariffs on top of existing import duties. The EU, a bigger US market, has been hit with tariffs of 20 to 50 per cent. So keeping the US president sweet is financially wise.On Tuesday, Trump will be afforded the singular honour of a second state visit to the United Kingdom. The invitation from the King was hand-delivered to the Oval Office by the British prime minister.Keir Starmer hands Donald Trump a letter from King Charles III during a meeting in the Oval Office in February More

A growing number of Labour MPs have publicly warned Sir Keir Starmer is on the brink of being ousted amid the fallout from Peter Mandelson’s sacking and a turbulent first year in office. On Monday, Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, said the prime minister must “change course immediately” or he will be gone by May, saying it is “inevitable” the prime minister will be forced to quit if the local elections are as bad as predicted. He also warned the UK is facing a “real threat for the first time in our country’s history of what I would consider to be a far-right extremist government”, arguing it is the prime minister’s “duty to stop that happening”.“He can only do that by delivering for people who want real change. And if he can’t do that, then of course, there’s going to have to be change at the very top,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. It comes after Labour MP Clive Lewis warned on Friday that Sir Keir “doesn’t seem up to the job”, while fellow MP Graham Stringer said Sir Keir is “supping in the last-chance saloon”. The MP for Blackley and Middleton South told Times Radio that “it is a given” among Labour MPs that the prime minister is “making mistakes and doing poorly at the job”.The warnings come just over a year after Labour won a historic majority, with the government now seeing growing concern over devastating approval ratings and mounting discontent brewing among Labour backbenchers. The prime minister is facing a challenging week amid the fallout from the sacking of Lord Mandelson More

A government minister has fuelled speculation that Peter Mandelson could be thrown out of the House of Lords or lose the Labour whip permanently, saying the former US ambassador’s links with Jeffrey Epstein were “disgusting”. Asked if the disgraced former US envoy should be stripped of his Lords seat, former home secretary Jacqui Smith said she was “angry and disgusted” by his behaviour, adding that Lord Mandelson’s fate in the Lords would be decided by chief whip Roy Kennedy.Lord Mandelson was dramatically sacked on Thursday amid new revelations about his relationship with the convicted paedophile – raising serious questions about the prime minister’s judgement. Jacqui Smith was home secretary under Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2009 More