Keir Starmer is under renewed pressure after Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors in England and he used a Monday speech to defend his record, including rebuilding Britain’s relationship with Europe and the european single market. For Labour MPs now seeking an orderly transition, the question is no longer just the election damage but whether his speech has slowed the calls for a departure timetable.
West’s September timetable push
More than 30 Labour MPs have said Starmer should resign or set out a timetable for his departure, and Catherine West moved the challenge forward on Monday by saying she was collecting names for a new leader election in September. She urged cabinet ministers to “move quickly” and said the response so far was “too little, too late.”
“What is best for the party and country now is for an orderly transition,” West said, adding: “I am hereby giving notice to No 10 that I am collecting names of Labour MPs to call on the prime minister to set a timetable for the election of a new leader in September.” That puts a date-linked path in front of a leadership fight that had already widened after the local election defeat.
Starmer’s Monday defence
Starmer said Labour would “face up to the big challenges” and “make the Labour case” for a “stronger, fairer Britain,” while insisting that “the fundamentals are sound.” He pointed to reductions in NHS waiting lists, child poverty and immigration, and said Labour had made mistakes but that its big political choices had been correct.
He also said Labour had been right not to be dragged into the United States-Israeli war on Iran, called the party “a mainstream party of power, not protest,” and promised legislation to take ownership of British Steel. On Europe, he said the government would be defined by rebuilding the UK’s relationship with Europe, while promising a guaranteed offer of a job, training or work placement for every young person looking for work.
Revolt beyond West
Josh Simons wrote that Starmer had “lost the country,” while David Smith said it was “now the time” for Starmer to “set a clear timetable for his departure” and for Labour to “be more radical” in its solutions. Paulette Hamilton went further, saying the party “may as well hand in the keys to No 10 now if we don’t change our leader soon.”
Ed Davey used the same opening to attack Labour’s direction, saying: “Britain needs a bold new direction, but he keeps delivering the same old speech.” He said the government should end the cost-of-living crisis by “getting rid of Keir Starmer’s red lines on Europe and fixing the botched Brexit deal, including a customs union,” sharpening the pressure on a prime minister already trying to turn a local-election rout into a case for continuity.
