𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Pressure is mounting on Sir Keir Starmer to step down as Labour leader following this week’s disastrous local election results. The Prime Minister has insisted that he will not “walk away” from his job, claiming it would “plunge the country into chaos” if he quit.

In the wake of the election decimation, dozens of Labour MPs have publicly called for Starmer to step down to stem electoral losses. The calls have come from a variety of Labour factions, ranging from key figures on the left, such as Rachael Maskell and Brian Leishman, to Blue Labour’s Connor Naismith on the right of the party. Naismith, the MP for Crewe and Nantwich, posted on X: “In the wake of these catastrophic local election results, with regret, it is clear to me that we need new leadership.

“Leadership which is capable of bringing together a broad coalition of voters to stop the Thatcherite politics of Reform UK.”

In a sign of the frustration within the party, former minister Catherine West said she would launch an unlikely leadership challenge on Monday in an attempt to force the Cabinet to act to remove Sir Keir.

She told the BBC’s PM programme: “I’m putting people on notice – if I don’t hear by Monday morning of some leadership hopefuls, I will be asking everybody in the Parliamentary Labour Party to put a name against my name, because we need to get this ball rolling.

“But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role, and then for others to come to the fore, who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”

She claimed to have the backing of 10 MPs for her initiative, well short of the 81 – 20% of Labour MPs needed to mount a challenge, but her move is intended to spur one of the potential Cabinet leadership hopefuls into action.

While many of Sir Keir’s critics have been those on the left of the party who were never his natural supporters, the scale of the defeats has prompted more moderate voices to demand change.

Ms West was in Sir Keir’s Government, and Clive Betts, the party’s joint longest-serving MP, also said the Cabinet should make it clear to the Prime Minister he has to go “in the not too distant future”.

He told the Today programme: “I think there’s now a responsibility on the Cabinet to talk to Keir and to recognise, as they obviously are picking up on the doorstep, that this can’t carry on forever.”