UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, reeling from crushing local election defeats, is facing a new setback to his leadership after a former minister said she would challenge him for the top job if no-one else stepped forward.
Sir Kier’s Labour Party recorded the worst losses of a governing party in municipal polls since 1995, prompting a growing number of his own lawmakers to call on him to quit.
To try to shore up his position in the party he named two influential Labour grandees as advisers, former prime minister Gordon Brown and former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman.
West said if the cabinet did not announce plans to transition from Sir Keir’s leadership, she would challenge him. (Supplied: UK Parliament)
But just hours later, Labour lawmaker and dual British and Australian citizen Catherine West, a former minister, told BBC Radio she wanted the cabinet to work out a plan to replace Sir Kier by Monday local time, or she would challenge him for the position herself.
“If … there are no leadership hopefuls who come forward tomorrow, then Monday morning I will put my name forward to stand for the Leader of the Labour Party,”
she said.
Labour MP Clive Betts also spoke out, telling BBC radio: “I think there’s now a responsibility on the cabinet to talk to Keir and to recognise, as they obviously are picking up on the doorstep, that this can’t carry on forever.
“There has to be a timetable. There has to be a way to actually bring in a new leader in a proper and constructive manner in the next few months.”
Despite calls to step down, Sir Keir Starmer has says he will not walk away from the Prime Ministership. (Reuters: Hannah Mckay)
Mr Betts, who is not considered one of the prime minister’s obvious critics, is among numerous Labour lawmakers to publicly suggest he ought to resign or set out a plan for doing so.
As the extent of the election losses emerged, more than 20 lawmakers publicly and privately called on Sir Keir to set out a timetable for his departure.
Asked whether he would stand down the prime minister told British media that was not the right thing to do.
“I’m not going to walk away from this,”
he said.
A number of cabinet ministers said on Friday they continued to support the PM, who just under two years ago led Labour to a landslide general election victory, and an immediate challenge from potential leadership rivals does not seem likely.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham does not have the seat in parliament he needs to mount a challenge, and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has yet to fully resolve the tax issues that prompted her resignation from office last year.
The UK prime minister has come under fire recently for his appointment of the Jeffrey Epstein-linked Peter Mandelson (pictured) as ambassador to the US. (AP: Kin Cheung)
Wes Streeting, currently health minister, is, like Sir Keir, tainted by the fallout of the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States.
Mr Streeting was close to Mandelson, who was sacked over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Any candidate wishing to make a challenge would need to secure the public support of 20 per cent of Labour members of parliament. With the party currently holding 403 seats, that equates to 81 backers.
Ms West said she had 10 names behind her so far but her preferred option was that another candidate put themselves forward.
“I think there are several people who would like to do it who have been planning for months,” she said.
Reuters/AFP
