Starmer leadership rivals should ‘give their head a wobble’ – Cabinet minister

Rivals bidding to challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party should “give their head a gentle wobble”, a Cabinet minister has said.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said Sir Keir is “the best person” to lead the country as she dismissed talk of plans to unseat the Prime Minister.

She told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme that the Labour Party should not become a “self-indulgent debating society”.

It comes after Sir Keir urged his party not to repeat the Conservative Party mistake of “descending into political infighting”.

Reports have suggested Andy Burnham has a plan to return to Westminster “within weeks” and wants to challenge the Prime Minister.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is also said to be considering a move.

Ms Alexander told Sky: “I think (Sir Keir) is the best person to lead our country through the period of extreme international volatility that we are experiencing at the moment.

“I don’t think the public would thank us if the Labour Party turned into some sort of self-indulgent debating society when there are pockets of the world that feel like they are going to hell in a handcart at the moment.

“I think asking the Prime Minister to somehow reapply for his job when all of that is going on and he is entirely focused on the concerns of the British people would be the wrong thing to do.”
She added: “I think those people who think that we should have a leadership election now and repeat the mistakes that the Conservative government made in churning through prime ministers probably do need to give their head a gentle wobble.”
Writing in The Observer newspaper, Sir Keir said: “We have a choice.

We could sink into the politics of grievance and division.

Or we could rise to this moment – together – in a national effort that matches the scale of the threats and turbulence we face.

“When the nation rallied together to deal with Covid, the last government could have channelled that spirit to build a better nation.

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“But instead, they descended into political infighting and let the country slump back to the old status quo.

Not this time.”