Starmer brings in Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to ease pressure on him to resign | Local elections 2026
Keir Starmer has appointed Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers in a bid to ease mounting pressure on the prime minister to resign following disastrous election results for Labour.
Brown, the former prime minister and long-serving chancellor under Tony Blair, was appointed as Starmer’s global finance envoy and was given a briefing to advise on financial partnerships, particularly with Europe, to help with defence-related investment.
Harman, who was Labor deputy leader under Brown, will be the prime minister’s adviser on women and girls, focusing on tackling violence and improving economic opportunities.
Although the roles are part-time and unpaid, there is deliberate symbolism in Starmer rallying Labor heavyweights around him as he fights to save his job, particularly as Brown was photographed with him in Downing Street on Saturday morning.
With the bulk of the remaining votes from Thursday’s election now counted, Labor has lost more than 1,400 councilors across England and lost support to Reform UK and the Greens in traditional centres.
In Wales the party lost power for the first time, falling behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK to just nine Senedd seats and also losing ground in the Scottish parliament.
Although none of Starmer’s cabinet has yet changed, other Labor MPs, including Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts and Debbie Abrahams of Oldham East and Saddleworth, have called on him to set a date for handing over the leadership.
Abrahams told the BBC on Saturday morning that he hoped Starmer would “always put country first” given Reform’s election threat.
“We have to realize the dangers we’re in right now and that it doesn’t look good.” Asked how soon he should consider leaving, Abrahams said: “I think it’s a matter of a few months.”
One Publish on XTony Vaughan, the Labor MP for Folkestone who was first elected in 2024, said there “must be an orderly change of leadership well before next year’s local elections”.
He added: “Some say we’ll look like the Conservatives if we change leader. So would they have done better if they had kept Boris in despite the party door? Or would they have kept Truss after he had crashed the economy?”
Starmer has been defended by Harman and others in the Labor Party, including the party’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, who told the BBC it was time to end “this incessant speculation” about Starmer’s stance.
“What I would tell people is that to think that creating some kind of timeline is going to eliminate leadership problems is actually a false conclusion, because that’s all it can do [set] “It’s quite a distraction, quite frankly, and a starting weapon in an ongoing debate about leadership,” Powell said.
Powell confirmed he wanted Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to be allowed to stand for parliament but said this should not include Burnham challenging Starmer. “We don’t do hospital takeovers in the Labor Party. That’s not what we’re about.”
Starmer will seek to restart his premiership on Monday with a speech expected to call for closer ties with the EU.
Brown’s new role is partly related to this. In the statement made by Downing Street, it was stated that the former prime minister “will be tasked with developing new international finance partnerships that can support defense and security-related investments, including measures that support the UK’s relationship with Europe.”
In the statement made by No 10, it was stated that Harman “will advise the Prime Minister on how to mobilize the government to provide services for women and girls.”
He added: “He will work with ministers across government to drive an effective agenda focused on tackling violence against women and girls, unlocking economic opportunity and improving representation.”
