With Keir Starmer fighting for his political life after the most perilous week of his premiership, the prime minister and his inner circle have been engaged in a desperate rearguard effort to shore up his position.
This week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker lifts the lid on what life is really like inside Number 10 when a Prime Minister and their shrinking band of loyal advisers enter what Westminster knows as “bunker mode.”
Boris Johnson’s former aide Ross Kempsell sets out his “rules for the bunker” — such as ensuring you have a highly political Chief Whip and tightly controlling access to the prime minister.
Former civil servant Robert Midgley, who worked under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, recalls political advisers suddenly vanishing behind closed doors during moments of crisis, leaving officials wandering the corridors of Downing Street awaiting news of a prime ministerial resignation.
Beatrice Timpson, former deputy press secretary to Liz Truss, explains how communications teams often go to ground during political meltdowns in an effort to impose message discipline when the PM’s back is against the wall.
Conservative peer George Bridges, who worked in Downing Street under John Major, describes the melancholy atmosphere surrounding a prime minister who knows, deep down, that their time is up.
And psychotherapist and political commentator Lucy Beresford argues that bunker mode is not merely a crisis-management strategy, but a revealing feature of the prime ministerial psyche — helping explain why so many leaders cling on long after hope of survival has faded.