Labour's devastating local election results triggered the usual Westminster panic: anonymous briefings, leadership speculation and MPs suddenly discovering their principles. Then Catherine West entered the conversation and briefly became a household name. What started with West's incoherent demand for a change of PM without a leadership contest (she's now decided that Keir Starmer is not so bad after all – and bizarrely claimed she could potentially vote for Starmer in any subsequent contest on the BBC’s World at One on Thursday, noting his “excellent credentials on the international stage”) has descended into the farce of an unnecessary by-election, months of leadership turmoil and a much weakened PM.
She has known the PM for some time. Back on his first day in parliament in 2015, a fresh-faced Keir Starmer – looking much more like the dashing lawyer that Helen Fielding was rumoured to have based Bridget Jones’s Mark Darcy on – shared a snap from the Commons with the caption: “Taking our seats for the 1st time”. Who was he sitting next to? Catherine West and Wes Streeting. Talk about keeping your friends close.
I know Catherine West, 59, better than most of the commentators now breathlessly discussing her. And it is precisely because I know her that I can say with confidence that she could never be the leader – or the kingmaker – Labour needs.
I first encountered her in 2017 when I stood for the Women’s Equality Party in her constituency. There was never any realistic prospect of my winning. Hornsey and Wood Green, as it was then known, was a safe Labour seat, and everyone knew it.
But our decision to stand was not about electoral victory. At the time, the Women’s Equality Party had one of the strongest memberships in the constituency. All of the major parties had selected female candidates, which meant that, no matter what happened, a woman would be elected to parliament. We stood because we believed women deserved stronger representation and because democracy is healthier when ideas are challenged.
Catherine West has called for Keir Starmer to resign (BBC/Getty). At hustings, I was heckled and repeatedly challenged about why I had dared to stand. On what was then Twitter, now X, I was trolled relentlessly. Labour activists and sections of the media seemed genuinely outraged that a Black woman dared to contest a Labour seat – even one I had no chance of winning. I received death threats. I forced myself to campaign each day despite fearing for my safety.
After winning the election, Catherine West blocked me on social media. Not because I had attacked her, but because, I think, she could not tolerate dissent. That tells me a great deal about her. Leadership is about character, and based on my experience, I concluded she has none. I am not a Labour supporter, and I have been deeply critical of this government. But I also understand the vital role Labour plays in British politics, and I know many decent and principled people within the party genuinely want to improve the lives of others. That is why Labour’s current state is so distressing.
The recent election results were catastrophic. Across the UK, vulnerable communities will lose councillors and representatives who cared deeply about their neighbourhoods. Opportunities will diminish, and many people who already feel abandoned will become even more disillusioned. Yet the answer to Labour’s crisis is not Catherine West.
Where was her outrage when the prime minister appointed Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, despite his long association with Jeffrey Epstein? Where was her indignation when Labour cut winter fuel payments for pensioners? Where was her voice when the party failed to abolish the two-child benefit cap, one of the cruellest policies in modern British politics, complete with a rape clause that forces women to relive trauma in order to feed their children?
At those moments, Catherine West was a minister. She benefited from Keir Starmer’s patronage. The moral clarity she now appears to have discovered was nowhere to be seen. That is what makes this sudden display of principle so unconvincing to me.
Britain is in a profound political crisis. Millions of people feel ignored, poorer and increasingly hopeless. Some are turning to Reform UK and independents not because they offer real solutions, but because they are desperate to punish a political establishment that no longer seems capable of listening. This anger is understandable. But replacing one failed leadership with another is not the answer.
By Monday morning, even Catherine West appeared to recognise that she lacked the support to mount a serious challenge. Rather than standing herself, she removed all sense of urgency – or indeed, sense – from the situation and called for an “orderly transition” by September. In politics, September is both a lifetime away and dangerously close. It is when Parliament returns, when party conference season begins, and when major global decisions are made. To plunge Labour into months of uncertainty would be nothing short of reckless. The Labour Party needs honesty, courage and a renewed commitment to the people it was founded to represent.
What it does not need anywhere near power is the likes of Catherine West. Nimco Ali is an FGM survivor, strategist and was also the independent advisor on violence against women and girls for the UK Home Office.
