Article #9920

Defenestration has become the modus operandi in politics, instead of MPs working through the real issues of the day

Does the United Kingdom really need a new prime minister? In particular, does it need Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband, reportedly lining up to replace Sir Keir Starmer?

The answer is surely no, not now and not after whatever the May elections may indicate. A change of government not even two years in office cannot be in the national interest. Yet Britain’s political community appears to be cohering round just such a defenestration. It seems the only way it knows how to hold power to account, giving it the seventh leader inside a decade. Parliamentary democracy is dysfunctional.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist