UK’s Labour not in habit of dumping sitting prime ministers

The last time a Labour prime minister came under pressure to resign like Keir Starmer did last week, was when Harold Wilson faced a backbench revolt over trade union reform in May 1969.

Harold Wilson was quick witted with a very good turn of phrase, which he used to great effect. “I know what’s going on, I am going on,” he said in a speech at a May Day rally at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It killed off the rumours and the plots and established a tradition of party loyalty in the...