catherine west said she would try to trigger a Labour leadership contest against Sir Keir Starmer by Monday if no cabinet minister moved first. The Labour MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet said she would ask colleagues to back her if she did not hear from a leadership hopeful by then.
She said the threshold was 20% of Labour MPs, or 81 people, and said she already had 10 MPs prepared to support her. West also said her preferred option was for the cabinet to “reorganise themselves” and put forward their “best communicator”.
West Puts Cabinet On Notice
West said she was putting the cabinet “on notice” after what she called devastating election results for Labour. On Radio 4’s PM programme, she said: “My preferred option is for the cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there's plenty of talent, and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role,”
She added: “Then for others to come to the fore who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”
Her comments sharpen the immediate pressure inside Labour because a challenge would need a fixed level of support from MPs before it could force a contest. West said she was confident enough people would come forward to trigger one.
Labour Losses On Friday
The pressure followed Labour losses of more than 1,460 seats in English council elections on Friday. Reform UK made gains in former Labour heartlands in northern England and the Midlands, while the Greens won control of Waltham Forest, Lewisham and Hackney in London.
The Greens also won the party's first-ever elected mayors in Hackney and Lewisham. Labour suffered a historic defeat in the Senedd in Wales and finished third behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.
Around 30 Labour MPs had already publicly called for a change of leader or a timetable for Starmer to go since the results began coming in on Friday.
Thomas-Symonds And Starmer
Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told colleagues to “caution” against West’s proposal. He said: “We've seen over the past 10 years now, what happens when a party in government just starts chopping and changing leaders,”
He added: “It just generates instability and it militates against a focus on delivery.” Starmer, for his part, said he would not “walk away and plunge the country into chaos”.
By Monday, the question is whether West can turn her 10 declared backers into the 81 MPs needed to force a contest, or whether a cabinet minister will move first and block that step. If neither happens, the pressure she described on Friday will still be sitting inside Labour, but without the numbers to trigger a formal challenge.
