Phillipson: challenge to Starmer would be wrong despite election ‘kicking’ | Labour party leadership

Education minister Bridget Phillipson said it would be wrong for Labor MPs to sack Keir Starmer despite voters giving the party a “real kick” at the ballot box and people feeling “bitter disappointment”.

Phillipson said Labor had been “too pessimistic” and made a mistake in trying to withdraw its winter fuel allowance after the party lost control of nearly 40 councils and 1,500 seats in local elections on Thursday.

But he said a leadership challenge from Labor backbencher Catherine West would be “completely wrong”.

West, a former minister, said he would begin collecting the 80 names needed for a challenge on Monday. He is not widely seen as a viable candidate, but if he triggers a contest other contenders such as Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband could come forward.

A contest in the coming weeks will prevent the return of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who is not in parliament. The Guardian reported on Saturday that MPs from the Labor left are expected to urge Miliband to consider his leadership bid in the coming days.

Nearly 40 Labor MPs said they thought Starmer should resign or set a date. The latest to add his support to West is former Cabinet Minister Josh Simons, who said Starmer needed to arrange an orderly transition to a new leader because he had “lost the country” and lacked the ability to “rise to this moment”. Writing in the Times, he said: “To avoid leadership chaos, senior figures from different factions should come together and decide the best path forward.”

Starmer facing a threat to his premiership He gave an interview to the Observer He said he wanted to serve for 10 years. He also sought to revamp his government by bringing back former prime minister Gordon Brown as financial adviser and Harriet Harman as adviser on women and girls.

But those in the cabinet with leadership ambitions are undecided about whether to try to oust him.

Phillipson joined other Starmer loyalists in saying it would be the wrong time to change leader.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “On Friday morning I was sick to the core of my stomach at the scale of the defeat we had suffered. We’ve taken a real hit from the electorate. There’s no escaping that and we have to think seriously about it.”

But he added: “I have been knocking on doors across the country and in my own community, as will my colleagues and party members.

“And what I heard was not a desire for a leadership race for Labor to spend more time talking among ourselves.

“What I heard loud and clear from voters was their deep disappointment that they voted for change in 2024, they were hopeful that change would be delivered and they didn’t think we as a party or as a Labor government were delivering what they wanted.”

He told the BBC’s program with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday: “I’m not going to come here and say there aren’t big, serious problems we need to solve.

“We can and we will. But I do not believe that the message we should get from these elections is that we should spend time among ourselves as a party, argue among ourselves, fight among ourselves.

“We need to tell a better story. We need to deliver it faster.”

But Sharon Graham, leader of the Unite union, a major donor to Labour, said she wanted to see more concrete policies to help working-class voters who had left the party.

He said the Labor Party had no right to exist and “could disappear” unless it changed direction.