“The race to replace Keir Starmer has begun,” said Peter Franklin on UnHerd. With Labour languishing in the polls, and its recent Budget widely panned, Parliament is buzzing with rumours and speculation. Allies of Health Secretary Wes Streeting are reportedly pushing for him to be installed as the new Labour leader, with Angela Rayner returning to her old role as deputy, as part of a “Wangela” dream ticket. Both parties have denied any such pact. Others being mentioned as possible leadership contenders include Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester; Lucy Powell, the party’s newly elected deputy leader; and even Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who is popular with members but who led Labour to a crushing general election defeat in 2015. “Astonishingly, it’s taken Labour roughly half as long as the Tories under Boris Johnson to get from a crushing election victory to dumping the party leader – or, at least, seriously thinking about it.”

All the signs are now pointing to a Labour leadership contest after May’s local elections, if not before, said Ailbhe Rea in The New Statesman. Streeting’s supporters believe he’s the favourite, but Rayner is more popular with Labour members. She, however, “needs time to rebuild after her resignation”. Unsurprisingly, her allies are cautioning against rushing the process of choosing a new leader, while many of Streeting’s backers are insisting there’s no time to lose. I don’t think a change of leadership is a good idea at this stage, said John Rentoul in The Independent. But with each round of speculation draining further authority from Starmer, it now looks inevitable.

Starmer’s days as Labour leader appear to be numbered, agreed William Hague in The Times. If he is indeed replaced next year, it will mean that Britain will have had “seven PMs in 10 years – more than in the previous 40 – suggestive of democracy becoming dysfunctional”. Starmer has limited options at this stage. He can’t “move further left without enraging taxpayers”, and his party won’t let him move right. All he can really do, then, is to “go forward, with speed”, by injecting more urgency into the reform process. Why, for instance, is the grooming gangs inquiry not up and running yet? Why is the initiative to lower energy prices for some manufacturers not coming into force until 2027? “There is a big prize waiting for a prime minister who can make officials run down corridors and show the country that intentions turn into results.” Even if such actions could not save Starmer’s premiership, they’d surely help restore some faith in government.

Reform UK has received a record £9 million donation from Christopher Harborne, a British-Thai cryptocurrency mogul, according to the latest quarterly declarations to the Electoral Commission. It’s the largest-ever single donation by a living person to a British political party. News of the gift comes at a time when Reform is leading in the national polls, but has been forced onto the defensive over a series of other, less welcome, stories.

Last week, Nigel Farage denounced what he called “a false story” in the Financial Times, which reported that he had told donors that he expected “a deal or merger” between his party and the Tories ahead of the next general election. “The idea I’d work with them is ludicrous,” he said. Reform also faced more questions about Farage’s alleged behaviour at school. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now claim to have witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him at Dulwich College in south London. Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, said Farage’s accusers were peddling “made up twaddle”. Farage has admitted that he was “offensive” at school, but insists he never made comments “with malice”. He angrily accused the BBC of “double standards and hypocrisy”, saying it should apologise for all the politically incorrect programmes it broadcast during the same era, such as “The Black and White Minstrel Show” and “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”. Farage faced separate accusations of racism last week over a campaign video in which he lamented the “cultural smashing of Glasgow”, citing the recent finding that nearly one in three school pupils in the city speak English as a second language. The comment prompted Keir Starmer to call Farage a “toxic, divisive disgrace”.

This week, it emerged that Farage had been reported to the police over claims of falsified election expenses. A former member of his campaign team, Richard Everett, says the Reform leader exceeded the £20,660 local election spending limit during his successful bid for the Clacton constituency last year by about £9,000, because some costs – including the refurbishment of a Reform-themed bar in the campaign office, and the loan of an armoured Land Rover used in a rally – weren’t declared. A Reform UK spokesman denied any wrongdoing.

Just over a decade ago, the singer Jessie J went from being “one of the hottest properties in pop to has-been overnight”, said Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian. She’d had a string of hits between 2011 and 2014, including three No. 1s; but after that, single after single suddenly flopped.

In a way, she says, failure came as a relief: she was still in her 20s, and welcomed her new-found anonymity. “I don’t love being famous… When I dropped off, I had a shaved head, nobody recognised me, I could go back to doing normal shit.” But she also admits that she lost belief in what she was doing: any music she did make was resolutely uncommercial; and her label had started to lose interest.

Then, in 2018, she did something completely unexpected: she entered the Chinese talent contest “Singer”. “My managers at the time said, ‘This TV show keeps coming in, and you’d be a special guest,’ and I said, ‘Just say yes to it… I need a shake-up.’” Only when she landed in China did she realise she hadn’t been booked as a special guest at all – but as a contestant. Yet she carried on anyway and, after 11 episodes, got to the final. Watched by 500 million people, she sang “I Will Always Love You”, and won the competition outright. “It was a plot twist,” she has said of her unexpected popularity on Chinese television, “but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my career.”