Gloucestershire MPs and civic chiefs react to 'shambles' of 'revolving door at 10 Downing Street' as PM Keir Starmer resigns

Summary

There are fears the UK will drift “from bad to worse” as the “shambles” of “the revolving door at 10 Downing Street” continues with the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer . Those are some of the views expressed by Gloucestershire politicians as they react to the prospect of the country having its seventh prime minister in ten years.

Details

The P rime Minister announced earlier today (June 22) that he has asked the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee to set out a timetable for a leadership contest with nominations opening on July 9. He will remain in post until a successor is elected. Andy Burnham, the newly-elected Labour MP for Makerfield, has confirmed he will run to replace Sir Keir.

He has the backing of Gloucester’s Labour MP Alex McIntyre but Reform UK in the county say Mr Burnham has no mandate to govern the country and they want to see a general election now. Meanwhile, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP for North Cotswolds, said having seven prime ministers in ten years is incredibly bad for the UK’s international reputation.

“A contributing factor to this instability is that none of them set out a real plan or vision of what they wanted to achieve for this country,” he said. “It seems as though the Labour Party are preparing to coronate Andy Burnham as the next Prime Minister. This means that there will be no process to interrogate him as to what his vision is to achieve for our country.

Exactly the same problem as the previous six prime ministers. “All of the issues that Starmer faced will now confront the incoming Prime Minister. The British people are entitled at an early stage to know from Burnham what his plans are to solve these problems.

“My fear is that we will continue to drift, and without a clear plan our economy will go from bad to worse. “After the economy, the next most urgent problem is how this country defends itself properly. Does all of this mean that the Defence Investment Plan will be delayed even further?” And Cheltenham’s Liberal Democrat MP Max Wilkinson said “people are rightly sick of the revolving door at 10 Downing Street”.

“It started with the Tories giving us five prime ministers in nine years and now Labour is about to give us a second PM just two years into government – what a shambles,” he said. “Whoever comes next must fix our broken politics and address the fundamental problems that hold our country back.

“That means scrapping the nonsensical trade barriers with the EU, tackling the cost of living crisis and dealing with the disempowerment felt by communities everywhere.” Vernon Smith, who leads the Reform UK group at Gloucestershire County Council, said he was delighted over Sir Keir’s resignation.

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Report source: Gloucestershire Live