Downing Street's Revolving Door

I have just witnessed the passing of the tenth British Prime Minster of my middle-aged lifetime. I am one of Thatcher’s children (one of her first, admittedly), and the current incumbent of her office I am not sorry to see leave, though that has been the case with all of them at the time of their farewells, including her. With few exceptions, they all seem dreadfully upset when they lose power: the eyes well up, the voice quivers, the final words ooze with melancholic sincerity. Had their immediate actions been so earnest as their goodbyes, they might have enjoyed another few years’ power. They always leap for joy when their predecessor gets the boot, but cannot seem to understand when everyone celebrates on hearing news of their own fall.

It is remarkable that barely two years ago, Sir Keir Starmer was handed the keys of Downing Street on the back of a massive Commons majority which should have made him untouchable, and with which he even weakened the House of Lords. A shrunken Tory Party with Reform snapping at its heels might have added to his security, but alas, that was not enough. It was his own party that booted him out after his various U-turns, appalling errors of judgement and a shortage of anything like charisma. So much for his promises “to restore service and respect to politics, [to] end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives and unite our country", and what of his promised “decade of national renewal”, instead of which he merely presided over two years of further national decline? Before some quarters celebrate Sir Keir's departure too noisily, however, they should take stock. Andy Burnham, the heir presumptive, may well provide Starmer with the benefit which he in turn provided Rishi Sunak: of making him look comparatively good in retrospect.

At Salem Chapel, we pray for the King and His Majesty’s Government most weeks now. Although there is a danger of this just becoming some new ritual or Sunday tick-box routine, I believe it is more vital than ever. We must pray for the new PM, that God will move his heart to oppose wicked legislation, that he seeks economic justice for our hardworking people despite our terrifying levels of national debt, and that he curbs the Islamisation and fracturing of our towns and cities.

Where the word of a king is, there is power;

And who may say to him, “What are you doing?” Ecclesiastes 8:4, NKJV

A D