Keir Starmer is this morning desperately clinging on to power as the number of Labour MPs demanding he quit reaches nearly three dozen. The chorus of public fury from the Prime Minister’s own MPs is continuing to crescendo today after the party suffered a devastating wipe-out across England, Scotland and Wales.
While counting in some councils is still ongoing, the party has currently lost over 1,400 councillors, slipped to third in Wales, and is tied with Reform in Scotland well behind the SNP.
33 Labour MPs have now called for the Prime Minister either to resign immediately, or to set out a timetable for his departure as soon as possible.
Three MPs have emerged this morning already to condemn Sir Keir Starmer, including former minister Catherine West, who demanded ‘an orderly transition’. The Hornsey MP said that the PM’s approach ‘is not cutting through… unless things change, we risk Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister.’ ‘That's why, with regret and significant sadness, I firmly believe that Keir should outline his intention to resign as Prime Minister and oversee an orderly transition.’
Debbie Abrahams, the MP for Oldham East, told the Today Programme she thinks ‘it is a matter of months’ before Starmer will have to decide whether to resign if he doesn’t immediately turn things around. Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) agreed: ‘There is a responsibility on the Cabinet to recognise this can’t carry on forever’.
But Keir Starmer ally Lucy Powell, the Labour deputy leader, condemned her colleagues’ plotting and warned that a leadership coup would make the party look ‘ludicrous’. Speaking on the BBC this morning, Ms Powell said Labour needs to change its approach, but with Keir Starmer at the helm. She argued that Sir Keir ‘is accepting responsibility, he is saying we’ve got to change. He hears what people are saying’. The Manchester MP said that the Prime Minister is ‘very reflective’ on yesterday’s brutal verdict by voters. But she lashed out at Labour MPs demanding a change of leadership, arguing: ‘I don’t want to hear about that anymore. I want us to get on with the job.’ Asked whether Sir Keir will still be the party’s leader in six months’ time, she emphatically replied: ‘Yes, yes, yes!’
The Prime Minister has said in a column for the Guardian that despite the local election wipeout, he will not tack to either the right or the left in order to win back voters. He wrote: ‘While we must respond to the message that voters have sent us, that doesn’t mean tacking right or left. It means bringing together a broad political movement, being assertive about our values, bold in our vision and addressing people’s demands. Unifying rather than dividing. That is the right approach for our party and, more importantly, it is the right approach for our country.’
According to the LabourList website, the 33 Labour MPs calling on the Prime Minister to either quit, or set out a timetable for his departure, includes: Debbie Abrahams, David Baines, Paula Barker, Apsana Begum, Clive Betts, Olivia Blake, Jonathan Brash, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Beccy Cooper, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Barry Gardiner, Louise Haigh, Chris Hinchliff, Kim Johnson, Ruth Jones, Peter Lamb, Ian Lavery, Brian Leishman, Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Andy McDonald, John McDonnell, Anneliese Midgley, Abtisam Mohamed, Connor Naismith, Simon Opher, Kate Osborne, Sarah Owen, Euan Stainbank, Graham Stringer, Jon Trickett, and Nadia Whittome. Some have caveated that the Prime Minister must set out his timetable if he doesn’t turn things around, but the growing number of those publicly speculating about his future will be met with gloom in No. 10. So far Cabinet Ministers are holding off, with it speculated that while Wes Streeting has the numbers to spark a leadership challenge he does not want to be the first person to jump.
