{"id":594245,"date":"2026-05-20T11:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594245\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:52:10","slug":"starmer-postpones-5p-fuel-duty-increase-for-rest-of-the-year-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/594245\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer postpones 5p fuel duty increase for rest of the year &#8211; live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Inside the shadow contest to be our next prime ministerpublished at 11:47 BST<\/p>\n<p>11:47 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/b9eb2a7b-b156-46ad-b4fa-fb47dc1b0972.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Chris Mason<br \/>Political editor<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Composite image of Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, all of whom are speaking while addressing audiences.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b8ed7e30-488d-44d6-8bdf-17c1bb2a636b.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Reuters\/ PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is now likely, perhaps highly likely, that we will have another new prime minister, possibly within weeks, or perhaps within months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Things are considerably less fraught, noisy and wildly unpredictable than they were last week. However the politics that will shape who is most likely to replace Keir Starmer is playing out before us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But hang on a minute. As supporters of the prime minister like to point out, there has been no formal challenge to him yet, and he is making clear, for now at least, that he is getting on with the job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some Labour MPs are exasperated that he hasn&#8217;t set out a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Others ponder that it might be helpful to Andy Burnham, in his forthcoming by-election contest in Makerfield, if the prime minister hasn&#8217;t announced a plan to step down, so Burnham can make the argument that a win for him would ensure Starmer was forced to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And there is another curiosity here: not only is this a shadow contest rather than a formal one, but Burnham has that by-election to win while his potential rival, the now former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, does not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside the shadow contest to be our next prime ministerpublished at 11:47 BST 11:47 BST Chris MasonPolitical editor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-594245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}