The 37 MPs calling on Keir Starmer to step down after election humiliation | Politics | News
Pressure is mounting for Sir Keir Starmer to resign as Labor leader following this week’s disastrous local election results. The Prime Minister insisted that he would not “walk away” from his job, claiming that if he resigned it would “plunge the country into chaos”.
Following the electoral slump, dozens of Labor MPs have publicly called for Starmer to resign to stop his election losses. The calls came from a range of Labor factions, from prominent figures such as Rachael Maskell and Brian Leishman on the left to Blue Labour’s Connor Naismith on the party’s right. Crewe and Nantwich MP Naismith posted on X: “Following this disastrous local election result, it is sadly clear to me that we need new leadership.
“Leadership capable of bringing together a broad coalition of voters to stop the Thatcherite policies of UK Reformation.”
In a sign of frustration within the party, former minister Catherine West said she would launch an unlikely leadership challenge on Monday in a bid to force the Cabinet to sack Sir Keir.
He told the BBC’s Prime Minister program: “I’m warning people that if I don’t hear from some of the leadership candidates by Monday morning, I’m going to ask everyone in the Parliamentary Labor Party to put a name in front of mine because we’ve got to get this started.
“But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to make a reshuffle internally, there is a lot of talent here and Keir is given a different role, perhaps an international role, and then others come forward who can get the message across, who are very capable and so there can be minimal fuss.”
He claimed that he had the support of 10 MPs for his initiative; This was well below the number 81-20% of Labor MPs needed to mount a challenge, but the aim of his move was to encourage one of the potential Cabinet leadership candidates to take action.
While many of Sir Keir’s critics are on the left of the party and were never his natural supporters, the scale of the defeats has led to more moderate voices calling for change.
Ms West was in Sir Keir’s government and Clive Betts, the party’s longest-serving MP, also said the Cabinet should make it clear to the Prime Minister that he should go “in the not too distant future”.
He told the Today programme: “I think the Cabinet now has a responsibility to talk to Keir and accept that this cannot go on indefinitely because they are clearly meeting on the doorstep.”
