Starmer defies calls to quit after electoral bloodbath for Labour

Sir Keir Starmer is battling mounting calls to quit after Labour’s electoral humiliation.

The Prime Minister said responding to “tough” results, which saw Labour lose more than a thousand councillors in England and reduced from government to a single-figure rump in Wales, would mean “being assertive in our values” and “unifying rather than dividing”.

But Labour MPs continued to question his position and deputy leader Lucy Powell said unless the party can win back voters lost to Reform UK and the Greens then Nigel Farage would take the keys to No 10 at the next general election.

Dozens of Labour backbenchers have publicly suggested Sir Keir should either quit or set a timetable for his departure.

The Prime Minister will seek to use a major speech on Monday and then the King’s Speech on Wednesday to attempt to reset his premiership in the aftermath of the electoral mauling.

Sir Keir has been caught by the rise of Reform UK on the right, with Mr Farage’s party making spectacular gains, and the Green Party on the left also making inroads in Labour’s urban heartlands.

But writing in the Guardian Sir Keir said: “While we must respond to the message that voters have sent us, that doesn’t mean tacking right or left.

“It means bringing together a broad political movement, being assertive about our values, bold in our vision and addressing people’s demands.

“Unifying rather than dividing.

That is the right approach for our party and, more importantly, it is the right approach for our country.”
Ms Powell said Sir Keir should stay in position.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “Thinking that setting out some kind of timetable would put to bed the issues of leadership, I think is actually the wrong conclusion here.

“Because all that would do is fire the starting gun of a, quite honestly, very distracting and ongoing debate about leadership.”
But she said Labour needed to win back its traditional voters: “We’ve got a big job of work to rebuild that voter coalition, that supporter base that has traditionally been our working class communities across the North and the Midlands and other parts of the country and our urban, liberal, middle-class support as well.

“We’ve got a job of work to do to reunite that voter coalition.

“And the stakes are really, really high if we don’t, because if we don’t, over the coming months and years, then Nigel Farage is going to be walking into Downing Street, and that is on us, and we have to get that right.”
With full results in from 129 of the 136 English councils, Labour had lost control in 32 authorities and suffered a net loss of 1,051 seats.

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In Wales, having been in government with half the seats in the Senedd at the last election, the party was reduced to just nine of the 96 seats available in the newly enlarged legislature, with First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan the highest profile casualty.

In England, councils which had been Labour for generations in the North were lost, while the party’s grip on London has also been severely weakened.

While many of Sir Keir’s critics have been those on the left of the party who were never his natural supporters, the scale of the defeats has prompted more moderate voices to demand change.

Clive Betts, the party’s joint longest-serving MP, said the Cabinet should make it clear to Sir Keir he has to go “in the not too distant future”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “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.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has continued to attract speculation about his ambitions despite publicly denying plans for a leadership tilt, said the Prime Minister will “have my support” in setting out how the Government will move forward on Monday.

But facing questions from reporters on Friday night as he attended the count for Redbridge Council, where Labour clung on to power, he declined to say whether he believed Sir Keir was the right person to lead the party into the next general election.

“I’ll continue putting my shoulder to the wheel as the Health and Social Care Secretary, who’s getting the NHS back on its feet and making sure it’s fit for the future,” he said.

Former deputy leader Angela Rayner, widely viewed as a potential challenger for the leadership, has not yet commented on the results.

Nor has Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whose path back to Westminster has previously been blocked by Labour’s ruling national executive committee.

Ms Powell, a Manchester MP, said Mr Burnham was “very popular and he’s a great asset to the Labour Party” and “I want to see us using all of the talents that we have”.

But she added: “I don’t want to see a leadership challenge, that’s not how we operate in the Labour Party… We don’t do hostile takeovers in the Labour Party, it’s not what we’re about, it’s not what people want to see, it’s not what our members want to see.”
Crewe and Nantwich MP Connor Naismith said: “Andy is the most popular Labour politician in the country.

“The suggestion that he wouldn’t be able to win in some of the seats Labour is currently struggling to win is just wrong.

“Ironically, this is precisely why we need him back on the front line of national politics.”
In Scotland, the SNP under John Swinney remained the biggest party but failed to win an outright majority, as Labour recorded its worst ever Holyrood result and tied for second place with Reform UK.

In Wales, Plaid Cymru are the largest party and will begin the process of talks with other parties about forming a government and getting Rhun ap Iorwerth confirmed as the next first minister.

Following Thursday’s elections:
– After 129 of 136 English councils had declared full results, Labour had lost control of 32 authorities and suffered a net loss of 1,051 seats.

– Reform gained control of 13 councils and added 1,276 seats.

– The Conservatives suffered a net loss of eight councils and 427 councillors.

– The Liberal Democrats won three councils and gained a net 142 seats.

– The Green Party gained control of four councils and put on 306 councillors.

– The SNP have 58 Holyrood seats, Labour 17, Reform 17, the Scottish Greens 15, the Conservatives 12 and the Liberal Democrats 10.

– In Wales, Plaid Cymru have 43 seats in the Senedd, with Reform on 34, Labour on nine, the Conservatives on seven, the Greens on two and the Liberal Democrats on one.