Starmer hangs on by a thread

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The best news that Keir Starmer received yesterday came when Labour’s Catherine West withdrew her leadership challenge. The worst was the deluge of MPs – upwards of 72 – who called for him to quit immediately or set out a timetable for his departure. This amounts to more than one in six Labour MPs, and includes Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, while Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has also been linked with the calls for him to resign. Starmer may be given a little more time to organise his own leaving schedule, but it appears, if it didn’t already, that the writing is on the wall.