Starmer has ‘lost the country’ as Labour mutiny piles pressure on PM to quit | Politics | News
Sir Keir Starmer has “lost the country” and is incapable of “rising to this moment”, a Labor MP has said, with those in the Prime Minister’s own party putting pressure on him to resign. This follows Labour’s disastrous performance in last week’s local elections, where arch-rival Reform England emerged victorious.
Josh Simons, the Labor MP for Makerfield, warned that the party was “heading towards extinction” and advised Starmer to “take control” by resigning as Prime Minister. He added: “We Labor MPs must submit to reality. This election was not a normal midterm tedium, it was a stark judgment that our actions were out of step with the times. We always talk big, then act small.”
Don’t write TimesHe continued: “Labour has stopped listening to places, people and ideas from across the UK, forgetting that no one tradition or group has a monopoly on the talent, radicalism or risk appetite we need at a moment like this. I take responsibility for my role. I believe humility is essential to pluralism and no big tent party can survive without it.”
“For Labor to rediscover its soul, we must reckon with reality. Our party has bright and determined people, but millions of people are shouting at us. We must put aside hard-line positioning and absurd debates about whether to move left or right, because the old political spectrum no longer exists.”
Meanwhile, Hornsey and Friern Barnet’s Labor MP Catherine West said cabinet ministers should “find someone they can all get behind” and replace the Prime Minister. Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I want the cabinet to lock itself in a room today and find someone it can get behind, which means we won’t need to have a leadership election.
“And if that can happen, then we can have a very quiet transition without disturbing anyone, without having to go to all the members.”
The comments come after Labor suffered significant electoral losses across the UK, while Reform UK gained hundreds of seats. Nigel Farage’s party also won control of a number of councils from Labor, including Barnsley, Wakefield, Sunderland and Gateshead.
Reform UK won more than 1,400 seats across England. Meanwhile, Labor has also lost power in Wales after 27 years, and the SNP remains Scotland’s largest party.
Of the 17 million votes counted and declared in the last British council election, almost a quarter went to Reform UK. The data shows Labor won around 20 per cent of the vote, Reform 24.6 per cent, the Conservatives 19.2 per cent, the Greens 17.1 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 13.9 per cent.
