Good morning. It’s Mared Gwyn, back penning this newsletter after a week in my native Wales during what was a pivotal week for UK politics.
The governing Labour party has been plunged into crisis after bruising defeats in the recent Scottish, Welsh and local elections, and a tussle for the party’s leadership – and the helm of the UK government – is now well and truly underway.
The former health secretary Wes Streeting, whom I understand from Labour sources has been plotting to challenge Starmer’s premiership since last year, has stepped down and is biding his time before formally triggering a leadership contest. The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, is expected to join the race if he successfully regains his seat in the House of Commons when he fights a by-election in a Brexit-voting constituency in the coming weeks.
And this weekend, Brexit was thrust to the very centre of the contest, re-emerging to shape the political debate ten years after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Streeting on Saturday described Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake” that had left the UK “less wealthy, less powerful and less in control”, calling for a “new special relationship with the EU” and – crucially – stating that Britain’s future lies “one day back in the European Union.”
