Starmer faces leadership challenge on MONDAY as Labour MP issues bombshell ultimatum to Cabinet
The starting shot in Keir Starmer’s long-awaited leadership bid was fired tonight by a former minister.
Catherine West, a backbencher, has publicly announced a leadership coup on Monday if the Cabinet does not take action against the Prime Minister by the deadline.
The MP for Hornsey, north London, made his announcement public in an interview with the BBC this evening; It’s a move that could force key players like Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting to take action.
Ms West said she already had 10 people ready to support her, but that number was well short of the 81 needed to launch the leadership election.
The former Foreign Secretary said: ‘I want the Cabinet to come to the table this afternoon and choose a leader from among themselves without disparaging the current leader, Keir Starmer…
‘But we need someone from within the current Cabinet to step forward as leader and then we will have a new leader of the party without the need for a leadership election.
‘If that cannot happen and there is no hope of leadership coming forward tomorrow, then I will stand as leader of the Labor Party on Monday morning.’
He called for Sir Keir to be replaced by a well-known Cabinet minister who can ‘genuinely sell Labor values and sell our programme’.
Catherine West demands Cabinet announce Keir Starmer’s replacement by Monday
Nearly 40 MPs have made public statements demanding that Keir Starmer terminate his position in the 10th position.
Ms. West did not specify who she believed was the best candidate.
He defended: ‘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’m going to do this.’
The announcement sent Westminster into overdrive, while the Prime Minister’s allies insisted Ms West would not succeed in sacking him next week.
One dismissed former Islington council leader Ms West as a ‘misguided North London MP’.
He also told the Mail that his intervention was “probably a good thing” for the Prime Minister as it would ensure that speculation about a possible prowling horse attack on Sir Keir would “boil away” and the rebels would now have to either pull Ms West or retreat.
Another Labor source privately mocked Ms West’s challenge, saying she was “Jeremy Corbyn’s best friend”.
Downing Street appears to believe that Ms West acted alone and was not a horse in pursuit of any real candidate for the throne.
His explosive intervention follows a day in which more Labor MPs publicly called on Keir Starmer to start organizing his departure from Downing Street.
The number of people who publicly said that he should either resign immediately or set a timetable increased to 37.
Ms West showed her anger about the current leadership this morning when she called on Sir Keir to resign.
Oldham East MP Debbie Abrahams, who is following him, told the Today Program that she thought it would be ‘a matter of months’ before Starmer decides whether to resign if he does not turn things around immediately.
Clive Betts (MP for Sheffield South East) agrees: ‘The cabinet has a responsibility to recognize that this cannot go on indefinitely.’
Wes Streeting reportedly has the required 81 MPs but does not want to announce his candidacy first
Angela Rayner is also considering running for leadership
But Keir Starmer’s ally, Labor deputy leader Lucy Powell, condemned her colleagues’ plans and warned a leadership coup would make the party look ‘ridiculous’.
Speaking on the BBC this morning, Ms Powell said Labor needed to change its approach but Keir Starmer was at the helm.
He argued that Sir Keir ‘accepted responsibility, said we have to change’. ‘He hears what people say’.
The Manchester MP said the Prime Minister was ‘extremely thoughtful’ about the brutal decision made by voters yesterday.
But he lashed out at Labor MPs demanding a leadership change, arguing: ‘I don’t want to hear about this anymore. ‘I want us to continue the work.’
Asked if Sir Keir would still be leader of the party in six months’ time, he replied emphatically: ‘Yes, yes, yes!’
Interviewed this afternoon, Starmer said the local election results were ‘really tough’ and that he would ‘reflect and respond’ to the message given by voters.
‘I’m not going to go and drag the country into chaos, I think the right thing to do is to rebuild and show the way forward.
‘We have made many important calls over the last few years… we need to anchor our discussions about hope and the future in this.
‘I will put forward these arguments… I will make clear the values and beliefs that guide me.’
When asked if he would defend the leadership if challenged, he deliberately shifted the question.
