King in the South

Plus: Starmer's toxic legacy, but will Burnham be even worse?

Jun 22, 2026

Those with a keen interest in current affairs will have already spotted that the Prime Minister has resigned. It was a news item that managed to be both overwhelmingly predicted and yet rather shocking. The world looks on as we get ready for our seventh Prime Minister in ten years.

Wes Streeting quickly endorsed Andy Burnham. This makes it look highly likely that Burnham will make it into Downing Street - without even a contest. A Coronation Street-ing, as the wags at CCHQ put it:

CCHQ Press@CCHQPress

Coronation Street-ing

10:23 AM · Jun 22, 2026 · 7.51K Views

9 Replies · 20 Reposts · 139 Likes

But even if Burnham gets a coronation, it does not follow that he will enjoy a honeymoon. The media are already pressing his supporters on whether he will offer a big change of direction - if so, ditching Labour’s Manifesto policies from 2024. Would they not require an early General Election to have a new mandate? A logic that Burnham used to favour.

Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.

CapX

Today’s Takes

Fresh thinking from CapX

We will miss Keir Starmer

Maxwell Marlow

‘For the chaos that comes next, let’s hope the Bond Vigilantes take mercy on us all’

Sir Keir Starmer’s true flaw was that he believed that competence and ‘stability’ could substitute for a theory of growth. To dwell on these charges is to mistake the symptom for the disease, and to flatter ourselves that some bolder, luckier, less tin-eared man might have slipped the noose. He arrived with a temperament where better concepts of economics should have been. Read More

Starmer’s toxic legacy

Andrew Lilico

‘The degree of hatred towards him is surely largely a response to his own sanctimonious, ultra-censorious attitude to other politicians’

What is Starmer’s legacy? He passes on to his successor a government headed rapidly towards fiscal crisis, potentially coming fourth in votes at the next General Election, with the only real change of his term in office being the decriminalising of abortion up to birth. The average term of a Prime Minister from Theresa May to Sir Keir Starmer has been some 730-740 days – less than that of the average Premier League football manager (787 days). Read More

Nimbys Go Ape against children’s outdoor fun

James Ball

‘If children are to be banned from social media, shouldn't outdoor activity be encouraged? But the Nimbys don't even want to allow that’

Is there any limit to Nimby curmudgeonliness? In Bexley, they have surpassed themselves. An outdoor activity, involving climbing trees and navigating elevated walkways between them. A bit of swinging into rope nets involved, too. Fun for the whole family - if it's allowed. If children are to be banned from social media, shouldn’t alternatives be encouraged? Read More

Stat of the day

The CapX Reading List

The best of the web today

Where are the Conservative voters on Brexit ten years on and are they changing their minds?

Lord Ashcroft, Conservative Home

‘Reform voters are twice as likely to think that Brexit has changed the UK for the better than for the worse’

Deciding to leave the EU presented opportunities and challenges. As a country we have to seize those opportunities and rise to those challenges. Just as Brexit was never the answer to every problem in 2016, it is not the cause of every problem in 2026. It is time to move on and move forward. Read More

Beware a desperate Prime Minister in search of a legacy

Tom Harwood, City AM

‘Desperate leaders look to legacy. It’s why Theresa May bound the country into a carbon net zero commitment after just three hours of Commons debate in June 2019, just a month before she resigned’

Will the Prime Minister use his final weeks in office to try to secure a legacy? Perhaps this is why, too, this week we learned the Assisted Dying Bill is being brought back in an identical form to the one which failed to pass the Lords in the last parliamentary session. Read More