Natasha Clark

Political editor @LBC 📻 🎙📸 💻👩‍💻

Previously @TheSun @TheTimes @PoliticsHome 🗞

[email protected]

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

I'm running my second marathon next month for @SafelineUK sexual abuse support charity - I'd love your support if you're able to!

https://t.co/entByAPxdJ

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Nick Thomas Symonds tells @NickFerrariLBC he will be supporting Andy Burnham to be Labour leader/PM and urges coronation:

Says he's shown a "track record of delivery" and someone "who is best placed to defeat Reform"

"I think going forward what the PM's doing is setting out the possibility of a swift and ordinary transition. He put the country first by setting out the timetable he did yesterday." @LBC

[LBC @LBC]

'The mood in 10 Downing Street is one of grief and sorrow today.'

LBC Political Editor @NatashaC tells Simon Marks of the atmosphere inside Number 10.

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Lammy hits back at Trump accusations that Starmer has failed as PM

“Defence investment plan is still to be published. I saw a disagree with the pm of Italy too. There’s a lot of intense rhetoric from this president but that is a matter for him. I think listeners have got used to it. I want to stand by my dear friend Keir Starmer and commend his leadership for the last two years and who joins as a Labour leader who has been able to lead the party to power.” @LBC

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Deputy PM David Lammy tells @BenKentish his feeling is gratitude to Starmer for turning the party around

“Starmer lifted us up. No one thought he could go on to win an election in one term. He did that. His record on reconnecting us to Europe, standing up for Ukraine, waiting lists, health, small boats, on so many issues, half a million young people out of poverty.”

Says he recognised the situation with honour and grace “that’s the judgement he alone can make. I hope listeners will recognise his achievements. He’s a good man, principled.”

@LBCNews

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

@BenKentish Lammy says a job for the PM in the Burnham government is a matter for him but adds “There are few people I’ve met with his resilience and work ethic.”

@LBC

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Ward on what changed for the PM this weekend:

“He felt the feeling in the PLP and party was a change was needed. He came to that conclusion himself…

“He took soundings, thought it through and concluded this was best in the national interest. Resigning is incredibly difficult when he has given six or so years as leader trying to rebuild and build a Labour government. The toll on your family and yourself is hard to stress. We should look at what he’s achieved and try and unite the party.”

Says we are at risk of becoming “not a serious country” as we have our seventh PM in ten years

@BenKentish @LBC

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Chris Ward MP tells @BenKentish the PM will leave the country in a better place than when he found it but he is “disappointed to be leaving”

He says his exit was dignified and clear. And now there’s a “chance to break that chopping and changing and psychodrama, we have one chance to unite”

Says he will face the same difficult fiscal scenario, the same thirst for change and a challenging political situation in the party

“I will be one hundred per cent behind him if he gets it”

@LBC

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

@maxwell_marlow I knew exactly what I was doing bzzzz

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Senior Labour sources tell me they’re confident the party will accept the PM’s timetable of leadership for the next few weeks

[LBC @LBC]

"He's not the messiah!"

Andy Burnham is heckled as he's sworn in as an MP.

[LBC @LBC]

'Keir Starmer is now a lame duck prime minister.'

@NatashaC explains the 'waiting game' the country is in to see how a Labour leadership battle will officially commence.

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Chief Whip Jonny Reynolds, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Darren Jones, James Murray, Lucy Powell, Dan Tomlinson among those watching Burnham with his MPs photocall this afternoon. Possibly trying to hold onto jobs...

[LBC @LBC]

'So many of his staff and cabinet colleagues looked crestfallen to be in this position - just two years after that historic landslide.'

Keir Starmer has now become one of the Labour Party's shortest serving Prime Ministers, says @NatashaC.

[LBC @LBC]

Emotional Keir Starmer pays tribute to family as he announces resignation https://t.co/yHRzyMb4sG

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Minister Jacqui Smith speaking to LBC

•Anything (PM) says will be based on the important thinking he's been doing about what’s in the best interests of the country

•You’ll hear from him ‘over the next couple of days’

•would like Starmer to continue as PM - but he has a right to make the decision without all the advice ‘swimming around the Labour party’

•It’s important to reflect on the chaos of the last Tory government, which lost track of serving the British public.

•We need to give the prime minister the time to think about what is in the best interests of the British people

•headline writers getting ahead of themselves - but would be bonkers to suggest there isn't a contest for labour leadership.

•General election? That would be getting ahead of ourselves

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Government sources say the pair haven't spoken. Those close to WH say President closely following UK media and what's happening

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Donald Trump says the PM is going to resign...

[LBC @LBC]

'There will be a price to be paid in changing Prime Ministers.'

@HarrietHarman questions the 'legitimacy' surrounding Andy Burnham's potential path to PM, suggesting he needs to be endorsed by the 'Parliamentary Labour Party'.

@lewis_goodall

[Natasha Clark @NatashaC]

Labour's Harriet Harman tells @lewis_goodall there should be some form of PLP vote to 'elect' and endorse Burnham, something between a coronation and a contest...

Harman insists that "nobody has the appetite for a protracted contest" but that a coronation will lead to people asking: "where is the legitimacy?"

"They need to be thinking, how can he be endorsed? Who can he be endorsed by? A hustings or endorsement is necessary. Our constitution requires more than that.... The PLP could vote. Nominations are into the race but they don't . Burnham needs an opportunity to show that he does have the majority of the PLP. I've suggested Lucy Powell gets together with Burnham, Starmer, Streeting, to arrange this process. They all have the interests of the party at heart" @LBC