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David Lammy (Image: Getty)
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has insisted Keir Starmer “don’t change the pilot in flight” amid dismal local election results.
As Labor losses began to become clear, the Cabinet Minister was sent in overnight to defend the Prime Minister.
When he was approached by the BBC about a leadership change, he said: “It’s a tough set of elections. It’s certainly a by-term election and there’s a phenomenon, in a way it’s a new phenomenon, because we’re seeing a much greater fragmentation of the electorate, a lot more volatility, and in a way I remember this, and John will remember it, after the Iraq war we were losing to the Liberal Democrats in some areas in London.”
“No, you don’t change the pilot during the flight. You move on and you are aware that sometimes governments, especially incumbent governments, have a hard time, but of course we will reflect on what we hear from voters. There is a lot of disappointment. Sometimes our mistakes have been heard more than our successes, so we need to think.”
“This time you are being squeezed from both sides by the Reformation.”
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Former Shadow Chancellor Sir John McDonnell, who was in the studio, said he wished Mr Lammy “had not used that analogy”.
He insisted that the pilot would sometimes change if there was a “nose dive”.
The Labor backbencher continued: “I wish you hadn’t used that pilot analogy, to be honest. “To be honest, sometimes you do that if you’re nose diving.
“What I’m advocating is serious consideration of all the factors that have made us a nightmare tonight. You can’t avoid listing those factors; it’s about policy, it’s about communication.”
“It’s also around, yes, leadership and that’s just “Keir Starmer but also the leadership community because the Cabinet took these decisions, which I think were terrible mistakes, but the one thing you don’t want is a sudden coup.”
Lammy’s comments about
Another said: “Really, I’d mate if the plane was losing direction with a useless pilot at the helm. Mr Lammy, you’re an idiot, as is your leader.”
The Labor Party has lost 153 seats in local elections so far.
The party is not expected to do well in the Senedd elections in Wales or the Holyrood elections in Scotland.
