Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
May shows that traditional love for settling old scores
Night of the long knives under way, says Paddy McGuffin

TRADITIONALLY the first item of business of any elected prime minister following an acrimonious leadership spat is the night of the long knives and the settling of scores.

And if this week has shown us anything, apart from the fact that what passes for politics in this country appears to be irredeemably broken, it is that Theresa May is nothing if not a traditionalist.

It wasn’t long before heads began to roll and cronies, as well as some enemies, were advanced in the grand old tradition of Machiavellian diplomacy.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Left to right; Louis Mountbatten, Elizabeth and Philip Windsor wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, June 1977
Monarchy / 7 November 2025
7 November 2025

STEPHEN ARNELL wonders at the family resemblance between former prince Andrew and his great-uncle ‘Dickie’

Tolpuddle Martyrs tree
Lawman / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today

DISTINGUISHED: Portrait of Hans Hess c1962 (photographer unk
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend

A DAY TO MOBILISE: May Day marchers in Clerkenwell Green in 2016
Features / 1 May 2025
1 May 2025

As global fascism grows, ROGER McKENZIE urges the left to reclaim May Day’s revolutionary roots — not as an act of nostalgia, but as fuel for building a ‘community of resistance’ against exploitation and the rise of fascism