Keir Starmer brings in heavyweights to steady the ship

Labour’s big election wipeout has left Keir Starmer scrambling for ways to keep his grip on power. Instead of quitting, he has turned to two veteran party figures—Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman—to shore up his leadership. Brown, who once steered the UK through the banking collapse of 2008, now faces the tougher challenge of reviving Starmer’s fading reputation. Harman, a longtime advocate for women’s rights, has been handed a similar task in a different arena.The scale of Labour’s losses speaks for itself. Nearly 1, 500 council seats vanished overnight, marking the worst drubbing for a ruling party since the mid-90s. Some of Starmer’s own MPs are openly demanding he step down, comparing the defeat to Theresa May’s disastrous 2019 performance, which forced her resignation within weeks. Catherine West, one of over 20 Labour members calling for his exit, bluntly called his leadership a failure that voters had rejected. Starmer isn’t giving up easily. In a rare public admission, he owns up to “unnecessary mistakes” but insists he’s still the man to deliver change. Behind the scenes, though, his government has lurched from one problem to the next—policy reversals, endless advisor reshuffles, and even a PR disaster over a controversial ambassador pick. Whether Brown’s financial expertise or Harman’s policy experience can steady the ship remains unclear.