The Latest Breaking News from Jim Callaghan

The PM’s makeover collaboration was kept a closely guarded secret for fear it would hurt her ‘ordinary housewife’ image, says writer and broadcaster Tim Walker

Many prime ministers at some point find themselves in a situation where nothing they do seems to go right. It happened to Jim Callaghan in the late 1970s, to Gordon Brown in the 2000s and to every Conservative prime minister since 2019.

And it will be joined by a battered and bruised Vox wah pedal that Jimi Hendrix used live and in the studio

Cast your mind back – if you can – to September 1978. Jim Callaghan announced he would not call an early election (which he might have won), Pope John Paul I died after 33 days of papacy and the Commodores were number one with their hit, 'Three Times A Lady".

British politics has been drained of all credibility. The Labour leader could turn low expectations to his advantage – for a time, says Guardian columnist Andy Beckett

On reflection, David Owen was probably too “leading man handsome” to help the SDP break the mould of British politics. That’s right, I’ve been re-watching old BBC election night broadcasts again. This time, it’s back to the Seventies and Eighties for Ted Heath’s miscalculation, Jim Callaghan’s sunny (albeit misplaced) optimism…

6ft high piles of rubbish in echoes of the winter of discontent

There’s an incredibly strong pattern of failure among prime ministers coming to office when their party has been dominant for a long period

Two-thirds of voters say “it is time for a change” at the next election, writes Keiran Pedley