00:00Let's talk to Brian Wilson, who had a long career in British politics and served as a UK government minister.
00:07Brian, welcome. You've been at the heart of British politics and at the heart of the Labour Party.
00:11Why has Starmer gone?
00:15I think it became inescapable, but he did not have the support within the Parliamentary Labour Party to continue.
00:25And I think there is a human element in this. I think that you almost give up if you have
00:31to fight internally as well as externally against your political opponents.
00:36And that is the situation that Starmer unfortunately found himself in.
00:42So I think he is left with dignity. He could have prolonged this, but I think the outcome would have
00:49been the same.
00:50And so in our system, you know that you can be an effective party leader, which he was, in making
00:58the Labour Party electable again.
01:00But then that does not necessarily translate into the skills required for a prime minister.
01:06And in the same way, you can be good on the international stage, which I think Starmer was, but not
01:13really have the grip on domestic policies, which is what voters tend to judge you by.
01:18The UK now is set to have its seventh prime minister in ten years.
01:22Our generation grew up with a decade of Thatcher and a decade of Blair.
01:26Starmer won this thumping majority two years ago.
01:29Is this frequent dumping of leaders now the new norm in politics?
01:34Well, possibly. I think it's a little unfair to use that statistic.
01:38Five of them were conservatives.
01:41So this is the only time Labour has done it ever, I think, to unseat a serving prime minister.
01:53But I think that the pace of politics, I think the pressures of social media, I think the constant 24
02:00-hour news round, it just makes life very, very difficult.
02:04And so many major world issues, which nobody could have predicted when Starmer became prime minister.
02:11And it's all been a bit overwhelming.
02:13I think his problem was actually in the very early stages of his prime ministership, he made some really serious
02:20errors and has never really recovered from that.
02:24And that was on domestic policy and did things that were not expected of a Labour prime minister.
02:30And I think that truly was the beginning of the end in the very early days of the Labour government.
02:38Donald Trump seemed to announce Sir Keir Starmer's resignation before Keir Starmer announced his resignation.
02:45I wonder to what extent did the Trump-Starmer relationship contribute to his downfall or not?
02:52Well, I think, and I don't think he announced it, I think he speculated on something which most of the
02:58world already guessed.
02:59And then, of course, claimed it to be great knowledge on the part of himself, of course.
03:06I don't know, I think Starmer played the relationship with America and with Trump as well as anyone could.
03:14You're dealing with a very capricious individual who you have to handle with Keir, you have to handle the vanity
03:22and the changes in direction.
03:24And by and large, I think Starmer handled that all pretty well.
03:30And critically, and this is something that history will remember Starmer kindly for, is that he kept us out of
03:37the war with Iran at a time when there was a great deal of pressure from Trump to become directly
03:46involved.
03:47So, a new Prime Minister soon, the same old challenges remain, don't they, in the UK, slow growth, productivity and
03:54so on.
03:55Can one person turn the tide?
03:58Well, I think the early stages, again, will be very important that Burnham comes in with quite a lot of
04:07goodwill.
04:08People are looking again for change, but there have to be firm policy indications that there is change if he's
04:16not going to suffer the same fate.
04:18So, I just hope that he has an agenda that's going to address some of the issues he mentioned.
04:25I hope that he proves to be an effective performer on the international stage and has the appearance of a
04:33statesman and a Prime Minister.
04:35So, it's a huge transition from running, very successfully, I might say, running the city of Manchester to being Prime
04:46Minister of the United Kingdom.
04:48So, I wish him well, I hope it goes well, but it's a very big job, and the answer is,
04:54can one man turn it around?
04:55One man can give the leadership to turn it around, but then there has to be a unity and a
05:01sense of purpose,
05:02which maybe was lacking during the two years of Keir Starmer.
05:08Brian, thank you.
05:10Brian Wilson, the former UK Government Minister.
