41m ago
08.19 BST
Starmer
insists he won’t quit as PM, as former minister Catherine West seeks to trigger
Labour leadership contest
Good
morning. There were many predictions for Labour’s future ahead of the English,
Scottish and Welsh elections, which have been terrible for the party, but there
is one outcome foreseen by no one: a leadership challenge by Catherine West.
West, MP
for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a junior Foreign Office minister until she
was sacked in the reshuffle last year, announced yesterday afternoon that,
unless a cabinet minister comes forward to challenge Starmer for the Labour
leadership by tomorrow morning, she will do it herself. She would need the
support of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a contest; there is no evidence that she
has those numbers and (for reasons that are probably a mystery to anyone under
the age of 50 – more on that later) she is being described as a stalking horse.
While
there may not be 81 Labour MPs who want to see West as party leader, there
probably are many more than 81 who want to see Starmer replaced as leader befor
the next election. Almost 40, by one count, have been going public since the
elections on Thursday saying as much. But, in their comments, mostly they have
been adopting the same line as St Augustine took on chastity; ‘Lord, give me a
Labour leadership contest, but not yet.’
Why? Some
of them have been saying Starmer should be given a chance to show that he can
turn things round. But mostly the Labour MPs speaking out are on the soft left
of the party and believe Andy Burnham would be the best replacement. They want
a commitment from Starmer that he will stand down in the medium term, so that
Burnham has time to get elected to parliament first so he can stand as a
candidate.
West is
trying to speed up the process. This is seen as fatal to Burnham and
potentially helpful to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Angela Rayner,
the former deputy PM, who would probably be the lead candidates in a contest
held now. West has dismissed suggestion that she is acting on behalf of someone
else. Yesterday she said there was “plenty of talent” in the shadow cabinet
capable of providing leadership. Since Thursday, Rayner has not yet commented
on the election defeats; Streeting has said he supports Starmer.
The
prospect of an early contest explains why some Labour MPs on the soft left are
now reviving talk of trying to get Ed Miliband to stand. Here is our story by
Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot.
Starmer
insists he will not give up without a fight. He has given an interview to the
Observer and he told the paper that he was engaged in a “10-year project of
renewal” and that his intention was to lead the party into the next general
election and serve a full second term.
He said:
I’m
not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024. I’m not
going to plunge the country into chaos.
Here is
the agenda for the day.
8.30am:
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is interviewed on Sunday Morning
with Trevor Phillips on Sky News. The other guests are: Richard Tice, the
Reform UK deputy leader; Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader set to become
the next first minister of Wales; James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary;
and Stephen Flynn, who is stepping down as SNP leader at Westminster having
been elected to the Scottish parliament.
9.30am:
Catherine West, the former Labour minister, is interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday
with Laura Kuenssberg. Phillipson, Tice, ap Iorwerth and Cleverly on on too.
1pm: A
rally against antisemitism is happening outside Downing Street organised in
support of Britain’s Jewish community.
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