When Keir Starmer walked into Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, he did so knowing that Labour had lost 1,500 seats in local elections and dozens of his own MPs, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, had called for him to resign. To describe the mood around the table as ‘a little awkward’ would be an understatement.
Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara and former No. 10 special advisor Cleo Watson know exactly what it feels like to be in these meetings as a leadership crisis builds. In Cleo’s own words: ‘It’s like all the sunlight and oxygen has just left you.’
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