𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

My first week working the Daily Express, at the beginning of May 2007, sticks out for two reasons. On day one the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann was first reported, triggering the most heavily covered missing-person case in modern history.

Her whereabouts still remain unknown. The second came a few days later when, on May 10, Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister. Blair rarely did things by half but his tearful farewell speech in his Sedgefield constituency, reached new heights of emotion or, for his critics, bombast.

“The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth,” he said.

Some 19 years later and we could soon, very soon, be witnessing another Labour Prime Minister resign – just without the emotion, I suspect.

Blair didn’t actually leave Downing Street for another six weeks. Sir Keir Starmer will struggle to cling on in No 10 for that long.

Having waited in his boss’s shadow for a decade, Gordon Brown was a ready-made successor and duly took over the reins.

Andy Burnham, who worked in Brown’s Cabinet and is widely expected to win this coming week’s Makerfield by-election, sees himself as Starmer’s successor if he completes his dramatic comeback to Westminster.

The similarities with 2007 don’t end there.

Labour had a massive majority and the Tories were wondering if they’d ever win again, while Nigel Farage’s party (then Ukip) welcomed two major Tory defectors but was also embroiled in a donation scandal.

John Healey’s bombshell resignation on Thursday has most likely delivered the knockout blow to Starmer’s lacklustre premiership.

His decision to go was a complete stun grenade.

Yes, we all knew he was unhappy about the government’s cut-price Defence Investment Plan.

But Healey was a loyalist, the rock of the government and certainly not a sabre rattler.

He is understood to have had a “stand-up row” with Chancellor Rachel Reeves over how much wonga she was going to allow him to have.

The now former Defence Secretary, who was due to be unveiling the first elements of the plan on Friday, was appalled, telling Starmer that the Treasury’s position was unacceptable and urged him to intervene.

The Prime Minister rang Healey on Thursday morning to say he was siding with the Chancellor.

Remarkably, the call happened while he was travelling to Gosport for an event with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.

He declined the invitation for a further discussion and tendered his resignation with immediate effect.

Armed Forces Minister Al Carns soon followed Healey out of the door.

I know I’ve been saying this for weeks now but Starmer’s position really is in complete peril now.

At the time of writing, Healey is the sixth government minister to resign since Labour’s disastrous showing in last month’s elections.

He is also the fourth full cabinet minister to quit Sir Keir’s government after Louise Haigh, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting.

Labour’s turmoil is being played out against the gruesome backdrop of another barbaric knife attack and the ensuing violence that erupted on the streets of Belfast in the aftermath.

Whoever is Prime Minister in the coming weeks and months needs to find a way to turn the temperature down on a country which is becoming increasingly restless.

On a brighter note, I’m writing this week’s Westminster Insider aboard the rattler to the seaside.

Clacton on Sea in Essex to be precise, which just happens to be the constituency of a certain political party leader.

I’ll tell you all about it next week!