𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Keir Starmer could be removed as Prime Minister by mutinous backbenchers within hours of this Thursday’s local elections. Polls predict this week’s ballot will be apocalyptic for Labour, which is expected to lose hundreds of seats to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Zack Polanski’s Greens.

The Prime Minister has taken a battering in recent months, not least over his calamitous decision to appoint now-disgraced peer Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Now Labour MPs are reportedly plotting to pounce on the PM by writing an open letter calling on him to resign and set a timetable for his departure, according to The Telegraph. However, one MP said the letter would only succeed if also inked by junior ministers, with no frontbencher currently prepared to sign.

The letter has hallmarks of the tactics MPs used to oust Sir Tony Blair in 2006, when backbenchers said uncertainty over his departure date was damaging the party. But Labour has dismissed accusations of a plot, with Housing Secretary Steve Reed saying: “We can’t be like the Tories and doomscroll through leaders, it ends in annihilation. We’ve got to focus on the British public, not ourselves.”

Yet opponents to Sir Keir are reported to be circling, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting said to have amassed enough support among MPs for a leadership challenge.

Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband are also rumoured to be considering leadership bids, although Mr Burnham – currently Mayor of Greater Manchester – would need to return to Parliament. Rivals need the support of 81 MPs to mount a formal leadership challenge.

Sir Keir, whose approval ratings have tanked to make him by far and away the least popular UK party leader, has stayed away from the campaign trail in recent days, instead flying to international meetings across Europe.

A total of 5,000 seats are up for grabs on Thursday, including elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. In a particularly crushing blow, Labour looks set to not only lose control of Wales for the first time, but be beaten into third by Plaid Cymru and Reform.

Labour also looks likely to lose London councils to Reform and the Greens.