Keir Starmer teeters on the brink as Labour riot erupts with dozens urging PM to give up
Tensions hit boiling point as Keir Starmer’s make-or-break speech failed to calm his critics and more than 50 MPs went public to call for him to quit as Prime Minister
Keir Starmer’s speech failed to calm his critics among MPs(Image: James Manning/PA Wire)
Keir Starmer’s premiership is hanging in the balance tonight as ministerial aides resigned and dozens of MPs called for him to go.
Tensions hit boiling point as the Prime Minister’s make-or-break speech failed to calm his critics. More than 50 MPs went public to call for him to quit as backbencher Catherine West spearheaded a chaotic bid to topple him. The Mirror understands around 80 MPs have signed Ms West’s letter calling the PM to set out a timetable for his departure from No10 by September.
Tom Rutland, Joe Morris, Melanie Ward and Naushabah Khan quit as parliamentary private secretaries (PPS), while another, Sally Jameson, called for the PM to go. Speculation was rife over whether the Cabinet would be forced to intervene if resignations mounted.
Mr Starmer will chair a high-stakes Cabinet meeting on Tuesday as he faces his top team for the first time since Labour suffered heavy losses in last week’s local elections. Earlier, the PM insisted he would not walk away and would fight any challenger. “I know I have my doubters. I know I have to prove them wrong, and I will,” he said in a speech in London. Mr Starmer argued that changing leaders risked plunging the country in chaos – and warned Britain would head down “a very dark path” if Labour fails.
He said: “This is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation and I want to be crystal clear about how we will win it because we cannot win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens. We can only win as a stronger version of Labour, a mainstream party of power, not protest.”
Mr Starmer set out a number of measures including plans to nationalise British Steel, a ban on “far-right agitators” coming to the UK for a planned march on Saturday and a plan to put the UK “at the heart of Europe”.
But his intervention appeared to do little to douse the flames. One left-leaning MP told the Mirror: “It was awful. It was a load of rhetoric and nothing new.” Another MP said “Keir’s speech had all the force of a tree falling in an empty forest, except the tree had a clearer direction. No one is listening.”
No10 insiders had been cautiously hopeful that they had got through the day, but the mood darkened as the number of MPs breaking their silence ticked up. A No10 source said: “I think it’s pretty dire to be honest. I think it’s over. I don’t think he’s coming back from this. The atmosphere is pretty poor. It’s very difficult. It’s been an emotional and sombre mood. The PLP are ridiculous. They can’t decide who to go behind. They want change but they don’t know who they want change from.”
Mr Starmer’s position had been strengthened by the failure by his most credible challengers to launch a leadership bid. Wes Streeting kept his head down amid fevered speculation that he could move to trigger an early contest that would block Andy Burnham from standing.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester cannot run to be leader as he is not an MP, and he faces significant hurdles to return to Westminster. Angela Rayner intervened today to say Mr Burnham should never have been blocked from seeking a Commons seat. The ex-Deputy PM said it was a “mistake that the leadership of our party should put right”.
In a speech at the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) conference, Ms Rayner also warned: “The Prime Minister today acknowledged the frustration that was expressed last week. But we will be judged on actions and not just our words. I’m proud of our Labour values but they’re not enough if we do not have a plan to put them into practice. It’s no good acknowledging the mistakes if they’re not put right.”
Ms Rayner, who is tipped as a challenger, is considering rowing in behind Burnham – unless Mr Streeting triggers an imminent contest.
Supporters of Mr Streeting have rubbished the idea of a lengthy contest. One Labour MP told The Mirror: “I think it’s a mess obviously. I think this managed transition thing is nonsense. As soon as you go down that route, you have a lame duck Prime Minister when we should be governing the country. It needs to happen now or not at all.” Another Labour insider said: “We can’t make Keir a lame duck and waste months of a Labour government.”
A string of allies came out to bat for the PM tonight, including Housing Secretary Steve Reed who said: “Changing leader just leads to chaos. We saw what happened under the Tories. Let’s learn from their mistakes, not repeat them.”
Labour grandee Neil Kinnock warned MPs trying to oust him was “inflicting the worst kind of self-harm” and said the country could not afford a change in PM. “The current conditions are a test of their resistance and realism,” the former Labour leader told The Times. “The departure of Keir Starmer would be seen as abandonment, not just domestically, but internationally.”
He added: “Failure to recognise those realities is inflicting the worst kind of self-harm. I would say to Labour MPs that cool heads are not dead heads. Cool heads are what we do when we are confronted by national upheaval, which our country can’t afford.”
Labour MP Sean Woodcock urged Ms West to stop, saying: “I think this is a wholly unserious way of going about this. While I too had disappointing results in my seat and would describe myself as far from happy at where we find ourselves, this is not how the government of a major economy and nuclear power should be decided.”
Mr Burnham abruptly pulled out of a keynote speech scheduled for Tuesday morning at the King’s Fund on tackling health inequalities. It is the second public engagement the Greater Manchester Mayor has cancelled since Labour’s election drubbing last week.
His allies insisted on Friday – after he cancelled a first appearance alongside the Children’s Commissioner – that a media frenzy would have distracted from the event. The ex-Labour Cabinet minister is yet to make any public comment on the results as speculation swirls over whether he will make a second attempt at a Westminster return.
