‘Almost like a Bond villain’: why Labour MPs expect Starmer to cling on as PM

While the Labour leader is deeply unpopular, several factors – including the Iran war – seem to be delaying his exit It still feels improbable that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, will face a formal challenge even if, as assumed, his Labour party performs disastrously in next month’s local elections. But for many of his MPs, the latest revelations about Peter Mandelson have emphasised that the question is simply one of when, not if. “It does seems incredible that he didn’t know, but the pr…