MPs from Labour’s left to urge Ed Miliband to consider leadership bid | Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer faces a decisive challenge from MPs next week, while Labor left MPs are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider his leadership bid in the coming days.
Following Labour’s poor results in Thursday’s election, former minister Catherine West said she would launch an attempt to break the deadlock if no cabinet ministers were named publicly by Monday.
It comes after a number of Labor supporters called on Saturday for Starmer to set a timetable for his departure from Downing Street. The Prime Minister reiterated his determination to stay, saying on Saturday that a change of leadership would “plunge the country into chaos”.
A number of Labor MPs from across the party support Andy Burnham replacing Starmer. But a time-consuming and uncertain by-election is required before the mayor of Greater Manchester can re-enter parliament.
There was speculation that Wes Streeting might consider a move next week, but this was strongly denied by the health minister’s allies on Friday, who pointed to public support for the Prime Minister.
With Burnham’s route back to the Commons still uncertain, dozens of backbenchers from the party’s left wing are now preparing to return to Miliband. The group is expected to call on the energy minister to step in and block Streeting’s coronation, believing Starmer’s former aide Angela Rayner does not have the necessary support.
A day after Labour’s disastrous election results, MPs were weighing their options and some hardliners were adding their voices to calls for the prime minister to go. But things began to move quickly after West, the North London MP who was sacked as Foreign Secretary by Starmer last year, told the BBC that he would ask his colleagues to support him on Monday as a way of launching a contest if no other challengers emerged.
He said he had the support of 10 MPs so far, well below the 81-20 percent of the parliamentary party required to support any challenger. But his action may inspire others to take action.
“My preferred option is to reshuffle the cabinet, which has a lot of talent, and give Keir a different role that he can enjoy, perhaps an international role,” West said.
He added: “I don’t have a candidate. That’s part of the problem. But I think there are a few people who want to do this, who have been planning for months, but I’m very surprised that none of them have come forward today and said, ‘I’ll do it.’
Labor lost more than 1,400 councilors across England on Thursday, reducing support for Reform UK and the Greens in traditional centres. In Wales the party lost power for the first time, falling to just nine Senedd seats following Plaid Cymru and Reform, but also losing ground in the Scottish parliament.
Starmer, who is due to give a speech about closer ties with Europe on Monday, launched a campaign on Saturday with two new appointments he described as “forward-looking”, including Labor Party grandees Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman.
Brown, the former prime minister and long-serving chancellor under Tony Blair, was appointed as Starmer’s global finance envoy and held 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.
Speaking during a visit to south London earlier in the day, Starmer said he accepted he had to “rebuild” after the losses but said he would not back down: “I won’t give up on this, it would plunge the country into chaos.”
A number of Labor MPs, including long-serving Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts and Debbie Abrahams of Oldham East and Saddleworth, have called on Starmer to set a date to hand over the leadership.
Abrahams said: “We have to recognize the dangers we’re in at the moment, it doesn’t look good. Asked how soon he should consider leaving he added: “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”.
Another 2024 MP, Terry Jermy, was released a statement He said Starmer “needs to consider whether he is the right person to take the party and the government forward”.
