UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's moment of peril | BBC News

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube where we go behind the. headlines. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and. today we're asking what's gone wrong for. the British Prime Minister Sakir. Stalmer. We're joined by our political. correspondent Rob Watson. And Rob, it's. just over 18 months since Sakir won a. huge election victory and yet now he. seems to be fighting for his political. life. How did we get here? It is an. extraordinary turnaround, Oliver, and. you're right to point out that he got. one of the biggest parliamentary.

majorities since the Second World War, since 1945. So, he seemed to be all. powerful. I mean, I guess it is worth. saying that it he only got 345ish%. of the vote. And one does think that he. partly won as a vote against the. previous government, the Conservatives, rather than any love for him in. particular or his Labour party. But. nonetheless, he had this whacking. majority. What's gone wrong? Well, in. essence, he promised during the election.

campaign of 2024 to deliver change to. make life in Britain better. And. secondly, he promised that politics. would be there'd be it would be no drama. star. There wouldn't be all the sort of. divisions and scandal of the. conservative years, the 14 years before. him. And obviously that has not turned. out that way. And in addition there were. all sorts of policy uturns and sort of. you know a sense of just one mistake. unforced error after the other and so he. went from this massive majority to now.

being I mean quite extraordinarily the. most unpopular prime minister and leader. since polling began. >> Okay. So things haven't been going well. for a while but now he's at crisis point. and it's linked to the Epstein files. Just explain how that is. >> Yes. And and of course we wouldn't be at. crisis point were it not for what has. come before what we what we just. discussed. Now essentially to make a. long story short in December of 2024 he. had appointed Peter Mandlesson this.

extraordinary influential figure in. Labor politics over the last 2030 years. It had appointed him as the British. ambassador to Washington to be a man. with a great deal of skill and. experience in somehow dealing uh with. President Trump. But it it was known. that Peter Mandelson had been a friend. of Jeffrey Epstein. And of course in the. emails that were released in September. of last year and the the more recent. ones that have been released, it it just. suddenly looked awful. The closeness of. those ties and people were asking what.

on earth were you doing? Prime Minister. Starma appointing this man. What a. catastrophic failure of judgment. And on. top of all that anger at him already, it. it sort of brought things to a crisis. for for Sakir Stalmer. >> Yeah. And that takes us to a day of high. political drama which some thought he. might not survive. Take us through it. >> Yes. I was one of those who thought that. maybe he was a goner. And you know, despite 30 odd years of reporting on.

British politics, I got to say that was. one of the most dramatic days. And I'd. split it into four parts. But when when. I woke up on Monday morning and I. noticed that there weren't any senior. government ministers coming out to sort. of support the prime minister after he'd. lost his chief of staff at the weekend. who'd resigned over the whole Mandlesson. appointment. I was thinking things. aren't looking good for the prime. minister. By the time I got to to. Westminster to parliament I was there. and then suddenly you have the Labour. leader in Scotland saying Sakir Stalmer.

needed to go and I thought that is it. A. lot of us thought could he really. survive that? the most senior Labour. politician coming out against him. I. went over into the house of parliament. was near the House of Lords, the House. of Commons and you had this real sense. of a moment of peril of jeopardy. Would. Secure Star survive? And then in the. early afternoon, clearly Downing Street. had put pressure on members of the. cabinet, the senior government ministers. to come out and support the prime. minister in in social media postings.

And then the culmination of the day was. the the prime minister and it was. extraordinary. It was dramatic to see. was him arriving in those sort of oak. panled corridors of parliament to. address his u members of parliament, Labour members of parliament in this. committee room. They're all squeezed in. there and I watched as the prime. minister went in, open the door and. suddenly there were these cheers and. clapping and banging of desks after, you. know, a few hours thinking the uh the. prime minister might not survive. It was. quite a 24 hours. Oliver,

>> is the danger over for Sakista? Uh, >> no, it's not. And I don't think it will. be over unless he could deliver on those. two things that that he promised and. that is to change Britain for the. better, to get economic growth going, and to somehow eradicate to get rid of. all that drama to be to be truly uh no. drama star. And the signs suggest that. that is going to be really difficult. because despite all that banging of. desks and clapping and cheering that.

that I heard last night as he addressed. his MPs, they have serious doubts about. him. I mean, those on the left of the. party think that he needs to change his. policies uh to be more socialist. and. those in the center of the party don't. think there's much wrong with his. policies, but they just think he's not a. very good politician and they take the. view that no one could be um no one. could recover from being this. historically unpopular. And I'll guess. we'll find out whether this is just a. temporary retrieve for Sakir Starma as.

some believe uh when there are major. elections uh in England, Scotland and. Wales in in May and that may well be. when the peril returns for Sakir Stama. because I don't think anyone believes. that the day of drama that he survived. on Monday means that he's that he's home. and dry. He still does feel very much. Oliver like a like a prime minister. living perhaps on borrowed time. And. looking at this more broadly, why is the. Epstein scandal having such an impact in. the UK compared to the US?

Do you know I've seen several theories. about this and I I'll share one of them. with you which which picks on two. aspects and the theory is number one a. rather sort of prosaic point and that is. that the that the people who've been. affected in in Britain Peter Mandelson. former Prince Andrew and Galain Maxwell. but particularly the former too that. they're sort of semi-public or or public. figures you know that they're sort of. out there whereas a lot of the big names. who've been affected in the United.

States tend to be more from the private. sector. So that's a rather kind of. prosaic reason. The second theory that. I'd seen which is which is if if you. like more kind of cultural and rather. interesting and I don't know what people. will make of it is that essentially you. know the elite institutions themselves. tend to think that a a scandal uh is. always a good opportunity to protect the. institution. And so in other words, if. you if you really really make an example. of Peter Mandelson, make sure he is. properly disgraced, you save the.

institution, you save politics. And. similarly, that the royal family by by. moving very early to ditch uh the former. Prince Andrew again are using a scandal. to save the institution. So that's a. theory. Whether it's a correct one, I. don't know, but it's certainly an. interesting one. >> Yeah. Talking of institutions, what has happened to the UK itself? It. was once a a beacon of stability. You. had Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, both. serving 10 years at the top. Now it. seems impossible to govern. Why?

>> I can put a figure on that, right? I. mean, at six prime ministers in 10. years, and I suspect one of the reasons. why Labor politicians stepped back from. the brink on Monday and getting rid of. Sakist, oh my goodness, do we want to. add a seventh prime minister to the. list? But to get to your question, I. think it's because, you know, reasonably. or unreasonably, for about the last 20. years, British voters have felt that. British politicians of what other stripe.

have not addressed what they see as the. three underlying issues driving. volatility, not not just in the UK, by. the way, but lots of other European. countries. And those three things are. number one, stagnating living standards. And that's something that hasn't. happened in Britain since the Napoleonic. Wars, Oliver, the early 1800s. Secondly, a widespread sense amongst voters, whether fair or not, that sort of. Britain is crumbling. The state is. crumbling. The transport doesn't work,

hospitals, education. And then third is. widespread concern about the high levels. of immigration over the last 20, 30. years. So you put all those three things. together, you you have very very unh. unhappy angry voters. And one of the. things going back to the start of our. conversation as to why Sakir Star is in. such trouble, he he came out he he. became prime minister at a time when. trust in politicians when anger levels. were already extremely high. So to.

somehow uh make a success uh in that. kind of environment was always going to. be a challenge. And it's a challenge. that at the moment I suspect even. Downing Street would admit that he is. failing. >> Rob, thank you. Rob Watson, our. political correspondent. If you like. this episode, please subscribe here on. YouTube. If there's anything you'd like. us to cover in particular, leave a. comment below. And for more. international stories, download the. Global News podcast wherever you get. your podcasts.