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Why does Britain keep changing prime ministers · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Global News podcast from the BBC.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Celia Hatton and today I'm joined by our UK
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  Speaker 1: political correspondent Rob Watson. On a very consequential day in
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  Speaker 1: British politics, the UK's Prime Minister, Keir's Starmer, has just
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  Speaker 1: announced his resignation. Rob, great to have you with us.
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  Speaker 2: Big day.
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  Speaker 1: The UK's about to have its seventh prime minister in
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  Speaker 1: ten years. Can you talk us through it?
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  Speaker 3: Goodness, Well, we've had so many big days in British
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  Speaker 3: politics and we'd have another one. And it's both dramatic
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  Speaker 3: and unsurprising. I mean dramatic because yes, it is the
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  Speaker 3: sixth prime minister to be claimed by events in Britain
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  Speaker 3: and it was after Sekure Starmer had won such an
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  Speaker 3: enormous majority just two years ago. And it's all gone
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  Speaker 3: horribly wrong. But unsurprising in the sense that, given how
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  Speaker 3: many other prime ministers have gone by the wayside this
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  Speaker 3: last decade, and given how incredibly unpopular Keir Starmer had become,
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  Speaker 3: I mean it's not really in that sense surprising that
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  Speaker 3: he lost the support of his governing Labor Party. But again,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if you step back from it, Celia, it
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  Speaker 3: just is head scratching. I mean, I couldn't and I
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  Speaker 3: don't think anyone would have believed if you'd said twenty
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  Speaker 3: thirty forty years ago, there'd be a decade where Britain
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  Speaker 3: would have seven prime ministers.
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  Speaker 1: Rob you mentioned that cure Starmer is pretty unpopular. Earlier today,
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  Speaker 1: we spoke to some voters in the City of York.
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  Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to what they had to say.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's not been that popular with a prime
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  Speaker 2: minister as he I feel like he's not done a
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  Speaker 2: terrible job, but it's just not populist. And it's very
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  Speaker 2: hard in this sort of type of politically now to
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  Speaker 2: be a prime minister that just does okay without you know,
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  Speaker 2: making it. You kind of have to do grand things
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  Speaker 2: doing you these days in politics, it's not about you know,
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  Speaker 2: doing an all right job. It's about making a mark.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not sure this was a great news for me
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  Speaker 4: in my opinion, because I don't think it will solve
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  Speaker 4: the problem. I think the problem is deeper than that,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm a bit worried that populists are pushing forward
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  Speaker 4: their agenda. I think it's the same unfriends, and it's
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  Speaker 4: the same situation. Franz, Well, it's overdue, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 4: well over du He's been a failure for some time.
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  Speaker 1: So we've just heard those people ending with that last gentleman.
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  Speaker 1: Why was Keirstarmer so deeply unpopular?
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  Speaker 3: It's a great question, and it's certainly not in doubt
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  Speaker 3: that he was. I mean, there seems to have been
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  Speaker 3: a visceral dislike for the Prime Minister among the voters.
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  Speaker 3: I mean that the polling evidence and focus groups suggests
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  Speaker 3: it's because, you know, fairly or unfairly, Celia, they saw
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  Speaker 3: him as variously inauthentic, a sort of typical politician, indecisive,
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  Speaker 3: kind of cold bureaucratic, a bit out of touch with
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  Speaker 3: the way this country felt to live in. And for
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  Speaker 3: some people that the sort of personification of the the
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  Speaker 3: woke bureaucracy as they would see it. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: absolutely extraordinarily unpopular.
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  Speaker 1: So the Prime Minister's position was already under threat, and
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  Speaker 1: now his main rival, Andy Burnham has a seat in Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us why that matters and how things might change
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  Speaker 1: moving forward.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the reason it matters is that the rules of
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  Speaker 3: the governing Labor Party is that you can't challenge for
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  Speaker 3: the leadership. You can't become Prime Minister unless you're an MP,
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  Speaker 3: and Andy Burnham is now an MP, so that was
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  Speaker 3: that the vital step for him to challenge Kis Starmer.
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  Speaker 3: And of course it's the reason why Kis Starmer has
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  Speaker 3: had to step aside, because essentially within the governing Labor
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  Speaker 3: Party that the mood, the tide has turned against him
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  Speaker 3: towards Andy Burnham. And there's a very very simple reason
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  Speaker 3: for that, Celia, and that is that Labor MPs felt
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  Speaker 3: when they looked at the standing of mister Starmer in
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  Speaker 3: the country and of their party in the country, they
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  Speaker 3: were facing an existential threat. So there's the sort of
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  Speaker 3: you could almost describe it as a level of panic
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  Speaker 3: amongst MPs, Labor MPs worried about losing their job. Andy
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  Speaker 3: Burnham has just won a special election or by election
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  Speaker 3: as we call them, in the North of England where
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  Speaker 3: he defeated. One of the part is that frightens Labor
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  Speaker 3: most the populists of Reform and Nigel Farrarch who've done
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  Speaker 3: well in appealing to the sort of white working classes
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  Speaker 3: who used to vote who used to vote Labor.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, it all.
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  Speaker 1: Seems a bit crazy doesn't it. Rob andy Burnham is
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  Speaker 1: now serving as the mayor of the northern city of Manchester,
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  Speaker 1: but he could leap frog to become Prime minister. Why
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  Speaker 1: does so many people see so much potential in Andy Burnham?
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  Speaker 3: His attraction to labor politicians and the people who like him,
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  Speaker 3: the voters of Greater Manchester, is that he's quite clearly
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  Speaker 3: more relatable, more friendly, if you like, than Kirstarmer. He
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  Speaker 3: comes over as being much more likable. He comes over
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  Speaker 3: as being more normal. He likes sort of football, he
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  Speaker 3: likes trendy clothing for a middle aged guys. He loves music.
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  Speaker 3: So they think that if nothing else, that even if
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  Speaker 3: their policies don't change particularly radically, at least there'll be
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  Speaker 3: someone as Prime Minister who can communicate to be a
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  Speaker 3: much better messenger than Kirs Starman. Now, of course, you
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  Speaker 3: know whether that would be enough without other policies, is
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  Speaker 3: I guess the absolute key question in British politics.
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  Speaker 1: Now, okay, so you've mentioned policy, Rob, just quickly domestically,
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  Speaker 1: what would Andy Burnham do differently because voters just had
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  Speaker 1: an election not too long ago to put Keir Starmer
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  Speaker 1: in place to do certain things.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the short answer is we just don't know Celia, right.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, in some ways the two men seem very
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  Speaker 3: similar in terms of ideology and policy. They're both center
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  Speaker 3: left politicians. You would recognize that all over Europe. They
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  Speaker 3: both believe that the priority should be on increasing the
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  Speaker 3: living standards of ordinary people. They both believe, eve a
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  Speaker 3: center left politicians, that the state is a force for good.
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  Speaker 3: But here's the thing. You then say, well, okay, what
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  Speaker 3: might Andy Burnham do differently? And those more on the
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  Speaker 3: left of the Labor Party would love to see more
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  Speaker 3: public spending, more taxes on the rich. And the problem
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  Speaker 3: here is that economists will tell you that Britain already
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  Speaker 3: has is up to its eyes in debt, that it
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  Speaker 3: already has historically and relatively speaking, high levels of public
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  Speaker 3: spending and taxation on businesses on the rich. So there's
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  Speaker 3: a danger, of course, and if you're from the left
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  Speaker 3: of the Labor Party, that you're going to end up
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  Speaker 3: being very disappointed that mister Burnham will be will be
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  Speaker 3: boxed in, just like Keir Starmer was, and in fact,
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  Speaker 3: just like prime ministers and presidents are all over the
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  Speaker 3: world by the kind of financial constraints they find themselves in.
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  Speaker 1: Rab just to focus on the big picture a bit.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Britain keeps changing leaders so far, no one's
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  Speaker 1: been able to to stick in place for very long
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  Speaker 1: over the past ten years. Why is Britain so difficult
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  Speaker 1: to govern.
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  Speaker 3: Well? The polling, evidence and focus groups and just going
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  Speaker 3: out there and talking to people suggests they're three really
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  Speaker 3: big drivers. And those drivers are number one, stagnation, stagnating
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  Speaker 3: living standards, and that actually goes back beyond this ten
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  Speaker 3: years and six prime ministers. It goes back to the
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  Speaker 3: financial crash of two thousand and eight, and that makes
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  Speaker 3: people's lives miserable and it makes them unhappy and angry.
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  Speaker 3: The second thing, which is sort of connected, is a
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  Speaker 3: sense that nothing works properly in Britain Celia. The public
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  Speaker 3: services don't work thanks to underinvestment. And then the third
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  Speaker 3: massive issue is a concern over immigration and social cohesion
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  Speaker 3: and all the evidence suggests that is what is driving
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  Speaker 3: vote anger and anger, which in turn is driving enormous
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  Speaker 3: political volatility in this country and the threat to the
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  Speaker 3: two main parties governed Britain for the last one hundred years,
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  Speaker 3: the Conservatives before and now Labor and it is of course,
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  Speaker 3: why if people are sort of stepping back from it all,
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  Speaker 3: will say, you know what, maybe you know Britain's political
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  Speaker 3: crisis is not just about the person who's in Downing Street,
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  Speaker 3: given that we've gone through six of them, maybe it's
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  Speaker 3: these bigger issues.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting, Rob, I mean listening to you, to