The Carpathia isn’t coming to rescue this government still swimming in the mire, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
A WAVE of teenage fanclubby enthusiasm for Tory leadership contender Rory Stewart tells us little about the International Development Secretary, but more about the journalists doodling hearts around his name in their notebooks.
Which is a shame, because Stewart does show us a particular face of the British Establishment: he is roaming Britain like a colonial administrator, asking to meet the tribal chiefs so he can iron out the kinks of his occupation.
For all the pundits chatter about Stewart, they are talking loud – and with love – but saying nothing. ITV’s politics editor Robert Peston gushed that Stewart “electrified” his audience with “lyrical” speeches and was a “proper star.” The Times’s David Aaronovitch bizarrely claimed that “it is so obvious the UK needs a party/alliance” containing Rory Stewart alongside the Lib Dems’ Jo Swinson and Labour’s Keir Starmer. LBC’s James O’Brien claimed “Rory Stewart would absolutely annihilate Jeremy Corbyn in a general election.”
Reform’s rise speaks to a deep crisis in Establishment parties – but relies on appealing to social and economic grievances the left should make its own, argues NICK WRIGHT
JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course
The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all



