Hello from The National and welcome to the View from London – your weekly guide to the big stories from our London bureau
Full hand?
No kidding. It's not quite four years since Boris Johnson left power and the UK is moving towards having had a handful of prime ministers in that time.
Keir Starmer has been challenged with the idea that the job had become too much of a handful for him. He is clinging on but there is little doubt the UK has entered a doom loop.
For now the grief is concentrated on the Labour party, which was routed by Reform UK and the Greens in the recent elections. Scores of his MPs have said he should resign and some ministers have taken the initiative to go themselves.
Meanwhile, the three prime contenders for the leadership – Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting – are jostling for support.
As Chris Blackhurst writes, party discipline, collective responsibility and common purpose have all been abandoned. It’s worse than that. Rows are breaking out, setting colleague against colleague or, as Labour would have it, comrade versus comrade. There is little camaraderie on display today. This, in an administration that swept to power with an overwhelming majority just two years ago.
It is bizarre and deeply troubling, he says.
Whisper it, but could the trouble for Labour be that those jockeying for the post are not such big beasts? Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is clearly in the hunt. “What we are doing isn’t working and it needs to change,” she has told Mr Starmer.
The problem for Ms Rayner is that in her own backyard in Manchester, Labour candidates suffered just as badly as they did in London’s Camden, Mr Starmer’s base. The same issue presents itself for Andy Burnham, a former cabinet minister-turned-Mayor of Greater Manchester who revels in the sobriquet “King of the North”.
Mr Burnham’s challenge is that he is not in Parliament. Lieutenants of the mayor are said to be offering seats in the appointed House of Lords to Labour MPs to pave the way for him to move into an eligible position. Given the results, pundits question this strategy, saying that there is no such thing as a safe seat for Labour to run a high-profile leader keen to return to Parliament.
Mr Starmer’s loyalists, such as Business Secretary Peter Kyle, point out that Mr Burnham’s own commitments to Manchester are pretty strong and should be binding.
The third possible mainstream challenger for Mr Starmer’s job is Health Secretary Wes Streeting. A number of his associates have already quit the government to up the ante. It's now or never for him.
And perhaps for another day, for former Labour leader, Climate Secretary and Edstone campaigner, Ed Miliband.
Labour's Middle East
Would a new leader take a more hostile stance against the US in the event that it resumes strikes on Iran? The party leadership would almost certainly position its Israel policy differently.
The UK allowed the US to use its airbases in the Middle East to protect Gulf allies who came under attack from Tehran after US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
But Mr Starmer repeatedly said the UK would not be drawn into the war, and has instead sought a coalition to protect international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
This strained the UK's relationship with the Trump administration – but was widely approved of by the British public.
Royal appointment
The metal barriers are in place, the ermine robes line the House of Lords hangers and the government is keen to sell itself afresh.
We've looked at Government plans to introduce digital IDs, which are a prime candidate to be given a second chance at the King’s Speech on Wednesday. A backlash last year forced the government to back off its plans.
The legislative agenda due to come in a royal speech today sets out new laws planned by parliament. It is expected to show how a voluntary digital ID scheme would be implemented.
That's a quick turnaround when a government consultation on digital ID introduction only closed last week.
Elisabeth Field, executive advisory company Teneo’s UK head of strategy and campaigning, said the public needed clearer evidence of the long-term benefits of digital. “Optimism about technology remains, but is increasingly dependent on clearer proof of value, greater transparency on risk and stronger signals of accountability,” she said.
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