That’s going to be all for now after an eventful day of Keir Starmer’s premiership coming into question.
I’ll leave you with the full story from our Whitehall editor Rowena Mason after major interventions from Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner have left the prime minister in a perilous position.
Starmer is expected to give a speech on Monday to set out his vision for turning the country around.
Andrew Sparrow will be bringing you live updates as usual in the morning.
Updated
Keir Starmer facing perilous 24 hours which is critical to his survival as PM
Wes Streeting allies say he’s prepared to go for the leadership if Keir Starmer’s premiership falls apart – but that he won’t make the first move – and that he has relayed this message to Downing Street. But the health secretary is understood to be aware that a contest may not happen without him triggering it – and some supporters feel now is his best chance.
Angela Rayner has warned of a need for change of direction in her first statement since the election results. “What we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change. This may be our last chance.”
The former deputy PM says it was a “mistake” to block Andy Burnham’s return to parliament – and that while issues facing Labour are “bigger than personalities” Starmer needs his “best players” on the pitch.
Catherine West, a Labour backbencher, has already said she’ll challenge the prime minister for leadership on Monday if he does not set out timetable to resign. Separately, about 40 MPs have already called on Starmer to step down or set out an exit plan.
But backers of Andy Burnham – who were among the first out of the traps on Friday calling for Starmer to set out a timetable – have been trying to persuade West to withdraw her challenge as he wouldn’t have time to get back.
Starmer is determined to fight on, his allies say, but even they acknowledge he has to give the speech of his political life on Monday to keep Labour MPs on board – and there are doubts it will be enough.
Labour MPs feeling desperate after the elections – but many also concerned about the chaos a contest could unleash, are anxious about who would take over and – crucially – what they would do. Many think if you’re going to make a change – do it closer to next election.
Updated
In her 1,000-word statement, Angela Rayner has said the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador showed “a toxic culture of cronyism”.
And then there is politics itself, putting power back into people’s hands so that they are shaping the decisions that impact them. We must tackle the inflow of dodgy money in our politics - something that Nigel Farage, who took £5m in a secret personal gift from an offshore crypto baron, will never do. We must make politics work for ordinary people.
We can only prove we mean it by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism.
You can read more about the accusations against Farage over the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire shortly before the last general election.
Rayner: Labour's 'last chance' to be party of working people
Labour’s historic defeat was down to inadequate action to tackle the cost of living crisis, and now it was the party’s “last chance” to be the party of working people, Angela Rayner has warned.
In her statement, the former deputy prime minister said:
We’ve heard the same on the doorstep as we’ve seen in the polls - the cost of living is the top issue for voters of all parties. People have turned to populists and nationalists because we have not done enough to fix it.
Living standards are barely higher than they were a decade and a half ago. People feel hopeless - that the cost of living crisis will never end, and now they see oil and gas companies use global instability to post record profits.
Once again, ordinary people are paying the price for decisions they didn’t make. It’s no wonder that across the UK, working people feel the system is rigged against them.
Things can be so much better than this. Countries including Spain and Canada have shown that economies can grow and people can thrive when governments stay true to labour and social democratic values and put people first. We need to learn from that.
In London, we lost young people who fear they will never afford a home. In my patch and across the north, we lost working people whose wages are too low and costs too high. In Scotland and Wales, people do not currently see Labour as the answer.
We are in danger of becoming a party of the well-off, not working people.
Updated
Angela Rayner calls blocking Andy Burnham's return to parliament a mistake
Angela Rayner has just released a statement on the fallout from Thursday’s elections. The most significant passage is one in which she calls the decision to block Andy Burnham from parliament a mistake and says Keir Starmer ‘must now meet the moment’. Here is the key extract:
This is bigger than personalities, but it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for - that means bringing our best players into Parliament - and embracing the type of agenda that has been successful at a local level, rather than reaching back to an agenda and politics that has failed people.
These are the fights we need to have, and the change in direction we need to see. Policy tweaks will not fix the fundamental challenges facing our country. This government needs, at pace, to put measures in place that make people’s lives tangibly better, while fixing the foundations of a system rigged against them.
The Prime Minister must now meet the moment and set out the change our country needs.
Change our economic agenda to prioritise making people better off, change how we run our party so that all voices are listened to, and change how we do politics.
Labour exists to make working people better off. That is not happening fast enough, and it needs to change — now.
Updated
Afternoon summary
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Pat McFadden jeered and booed while speaking at London rally against antisemitism
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, was jeered and booed as he spoke at the rally against antisemitism in London this afternoon. According to the Press Association, protestors shouted “shame”, “it’s your party’s fault”, “when will you act” and “Jew harmer” at Mr McFadden.
PA says that Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, was met with raucous applause and cheers and that Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, also received applause and praise when he spoke. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, “went on to stage to some jeers but the MC of the event told the audience he was here as a friend and the boos stopped,” PA says.
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who is Jewish, was not invited to attend – a decision that has been condemned by some campaigners.
Paul Fleming, leader of the performing arts union Equity, has called for Keir Starmer to set out a timetable in which he “resigns and is replaced”. Speaking at his union’s annual conference in Durham, Fleming said:
There is one person who is disproportionately to blame [for the economic situation facing the country]: not Nigel Farage, but Keir Starmer, and this union should have no hesitation in calling for the prime minister to set out a timetable in which he resigns and is replaced.
Labour's Richard Burgon says West's leadership challenge could lead to 'coronation', not 'proper democratic contest'
Another prominent leftwing Labour MP has joined John McDonnell (see 11.50am) in opposing Catherine West’s call for an immediate leadership contest, saying it could help the party’s right. In a post on social media, Richard Burgon, secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group, said:
I do understand Catherine West’s deep frustrations. They are shared by a large number of MPs and Labour members who feel we cannot go on like this and that Keir needs to go - as I have also called for.
But I can’t support the proposals she explained on TV this morning.
Catherine’s stated preference is for a Cabinet stitch-up - a kind of palace coup.
That would mean the very people who sat back and allowed terrible decisions like the winter fuel and disability cuts to happen end up deciding the future of the party. That will not be seen by the public as a clean break.
Catherine says that if there isn’t a Cabinet deal, she will trigger an immediate leadership election. I fear there’s a real danger that, whatever her good intentions, her move will be exploited by people on the right of the party who want a coronation and not a proper democratic contest in the party.
In interviews yesterday, West was saying that if no cabinet minister announced a leadership bid by tomorrow morning, she would start gathering support for her own bid.
Today she has made it clear that she intends to wait until after Keir Starmer has delivered his speech before she decides whether or not to stand.
Updated
Reform UK suspends Sunderland councillor over racist rant - after Tice dismisses questions about him as smear tactics
Mark Brown is a Guardian north of England correspondent.
A Reform UK councillor elected in Sunderland on Friday has been suspended following accusations of racism, according to one of the party’s politicians.
Before the election the campaign group Hope Not Hate revealed that Glenn Gibbins wrote on social media in 2024: “Carnt believe amount of nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!”
Gibbins was elected to Sunderland city council in the Hylton Castle ward.
Darren Grimes, the deputy leader of Reform-led Durham county council, was asked about it on Sunday’s edition of the BBC’s Politics North programme.
He told Look North political editor Richard Moss:
He has been suspended and the party is investigating those very serious allegations and we’ll act on them. There was a failure of the vetting process, I accept that.
Earlier Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform, refused to directly criticise Gibbins as he accused the media of “smearing and sneering”. (See 10.08am.)
Unison leader urges Labour to learn from Polanski, praising him for 'defending progressive values Starmer has abandoned'
Andrea Egan, who has general secretary of Unison is head of the biggest union backing Labour, has said the party needs a “radical policy rethink”. In an article for the Guardian, which does not call for Keir Starmer to stay as PM and Labour leader, she urges the party to learn from the Green leader, Zack Polanski. She says:
Instead of overturning the system that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few, leaving the majority to suffer through social miseries big and small, Labour has taken pride in tinkering around the edges. It has made a virtue of being some kind of sensible “centre” against two extremes. Our new local electoral map, where green or turquoise have replaced red in so many places, should make clear that this approach is a suicidal one.
The Greens under Zack Polanski have gained so much support because they are defending the progressive values Starmer has abandoned. It is always welcome to see political leaders defending migrants, opposing Israel’s genocide and arguing for economic justice.
But as things stand, we must be clear that the most probable consequence of Labour’s collapse is likely to be a Reform government. One that will seek to reduce union and worker rights while deporting our friends and neighbours. We are not likely to see the triumph of a progressive alliance. For that reason, the prospect of Labour being extinguished as a major political force spells disaster.
Time is short – and as we look to Labour’s near-future, there can be no doubt that a radical policy rethink is necessary. Repairing our public services by taxing extreme wealth should be the starting point.
Here is Egan’s article in full.
Updated
Here are some pictures from the rally against antisemitism in Westminster today.
Here are more thoughts on what is going on in the Labour party from journalists monitoring developments.
From Kitty Donaldson from the i
The mood in the Labour Party has shifted overnight, with those on the right now joining the usual suspects on the left to call for a leadership contest tomorrow. Some could lend stalking horse Catherine West their names after Keir Starmer’s speech
But a Cabinet minister tells me: “The overwhelming majority of the Cabinet are still with Keir, and we want Keir to succeed. It’s his responsibility, but it genuinely is our responsibility as well. We’ve got to take it and turn it around.”
A leadership contest “is just fraught with danger” and “it will be a contest no one will get through without being challenged. Just be careful what you wish for,” the Cabinet minister added.
From Steven Swinford from the Times
* It doesn’t sound like anyone other than Catherine West is going over the top, for now at least. Burnham has a vested interest in delay. Streeting is not planning to move at present. Rayner weighing up options but there are concerns she doesn’t have enough support for a formal bid
* But crucially the numbers are slowly ticking up - we have 41 MPs calling for Starmer to go in one form or another, but most are demanding an ‘orderly transition’ - very few want him to go immediately …
* Starmer’s speech tomorrow is still being drafted. There will be some policy but it will be well within manifesto red lines on Europe, migration etc. It doesn’t sounds like he’s ripping things up - more vision. The stakes are high. Will he meet the moment?
* Moderate Labour MPs are considering moving tomorrow if the speech is not enough. After Josh Simons today that would have the potential to swing the balance
CWU becomes latest Labour-affiliated union to vote in favour of PR
At its conference today, the Communication Workers Union voted for a motion saying the first past the post (FPTP) voting system should be replaced with proportional representation (PR). This means eight of the 11 unions affiliated to Labour are now in favour of PR.
Campaigners in the Labour party have been arguing for PR for years, but the rise of five-party politics in the UK has made the case against FPTP stronger. Last week there were claims that FPTP was turning the local elections into “a random lottery” because some results, in terms of seat numbers, were wildly unrepresentative of the way people actually voted.
Ed Baldwin, the CWU delegate who proposed the motion, said:
First past the post no longer reflects those we represent and is producing results that do not match the will of the people.
The Labour government has already accepted it is broken by scrapping it for mayoral elections. If it distorts democracy there, then it distorts democracy at Westminster too.
This motion is a demand for fairness, representation and a democracy that works, and CWU has never been afraid to challenge systems that fail working people. It is time for our union to lead and help make proportional representation a reality.
Other Labour-affiliated unions that have backed PR included Unison, Unite, Usdaw, TSSA, Aslef, and the FBU. In 2022 the Labour conference also voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion backing PR, but Keir Starmer and the Labour leadership ignored it.
Nancy Platts, coordinator for the Politics for the Many campaign, said:
Trade unionists have always been at the forefront of the fight for fairness and democracy, which is why CWU delegates voted decisively to reject the failing first past the post system and back electoral reform.
It is clear that we cannot continue with a voting system that ignores millions of votes and is producing more and more chaotic results that do not represent the way people have voted.
Labour 'facing existential crisis', says Peter Hain, claiming Starmer won't survive without fundamental change
Another former Labour cabinet minister from the Blair era has said that, if Keir Starmer wants to survive, he needs to implement fundamental change.
In an interview on Radio 4’s the World at One, Peter Hain, who held various cabinet posts between 2005 and 2010 and who is now a Labour peer, said the anti-Labour mood on doortsteps was worse than he had known for half a century.
He said there were four things Keir Starmer needed to do quicky. He went on:
He has to change, or he’ll be changed, either by the party or by voters. And it’s got to be real change, not just cosmetic change of the kind that he’s indulged in in the past.
Secondly, he’s got to stop making stupid mistakes like appointing Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US, and also the winter fuel allowance [cut], which really destroyed people’s belief that this was a Labour government.
And he’s got to tell a story, have a narrative. There isn’t no narrative, and it’s got to be told with passion and pride.
And the fourth thing I think he has to do, and quickly, is abandon Tory orthodoxy, because that’s stopping us funding defence and national security properly. It’s also stopping us clearing up the absolute shambles of student finance.
Hain also said the party had lost the support of the sort of working class voters who voted for him when he was MP for Neath. Labour was facing “an existential crisis”, he said.
The party is facing an existential crisis, and we’ve got to rediscover our soul, and we’ve got to communicate our values.
And the leader, the prime minister, has to conduct policy and government in a way that, really, is credible with people. And I’m afraid on the doorstep it isn’t.
People don’t think there’s change in their lives for the better, and people don’t believe we can deliver it.
Hain also said the government was doing “a lot of very good things”. But he said people were not aware of that because the story was “scrambled up”.
Jury out on whether Starmer can stay on as PM and Labour leader, says David Blunkett
David Blunkett, who was home secretary under Tony Blair and who is now a Labour peer, has told Times Radio that the jury is out over whether Keir Starmer will be able to stay on as PM and party leader. He said:
I think either Keir pulls out the stops and there’s a massive transformation in how we relate to the public.
Or he and Victoria [Starmer’s wife] will have to talk about the best way of doing it in a seemly fashion and someone else will take over … The jury’s well and truly out.
Sam Coates from Sky News says that he has been told by a cabinet source that they think it is now more likely than not that a Labour leadership contest will start within day. Here is an extract from his analysis.
I’m told different cabinet factions have been talking to one another in the last 24 hours, and many of them just want the West challenge to go away.
But, and here’s the big but, what I’m picking up from different wings of cabinet is that they think that they now might not be able to hold back the tide.
So they don’t like the West stuff, but there is, as of Sunday morning, a growing recognition that this might suddenly become unstoppable.
One cabinet source told me they think it’s 60-40 we tumble into a disorderly contest in the next few days.
The full article, which is well worth reading, is here.
Updated
Don’t let Farage and Reform divide us, Labour’s Sarwar urges Holyrood leaders
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has warned other Scottish political leaders not to spend the next Holyrood parliament “shouting about Nigel Farage”, saying his job is to ensure there is a credible opposition at Holyrood “that holds the SNP’s feet to the fire”. Libby Brooks has the story.
Labour says it's 'utterly grotesque' that Tice refused to condemn racist rant by Reform UK councillor
Labour has said that it is “utterly grotesque” that Richard Tice refused to condemn a Reform UK councillor who has talked of Nigerians being melted to fill potholes in his interview on the BBC this morning. Referring to the Reform UK deputy leader’s interview (see 10.08am), a Labour party spokesperson said:
It’s utterly grotesque that Reform can’t even call out clear racism.
It speaks volumes that Richard Tice tried to brush off these comments.
And it speaks volumes that Nigel Farage refused to sack him as a candidate and is now happy to have him represent Reform as a councillor. They’re both a disgrace.
And James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, posted this on social media after Tice’s interview.
How hard is it for Richard Tice to say that racism directed at Jews is wrong AND racism directed at Nigerians is ALSO wrong?
SNP defends not inviting Reform UK for talks to discuss Scottish government's programme
Reform UK has accused the SNP of being “anti-democratic” after John Swinney, the SNP leader, confirmed his party would not invite Reform in for talks about the Scottish government’s programme.
With the SNP by far the largest party at Holyrood, but just short of a majority, Swinney is set to continue as first minister. On Saturday he said he would not be inviting Reform UK to talks at the Scottish government headquarters in St Andrew’s house. The SNP is willing to talk to other parties.
Today Mairi McAllan, the SNP housing secretary, confirmed that the government would not engage with Reform. She told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show:
I think there are a portion of Reform voters who have voted for Reform this time because they’re either angry or because they’ve been made to feel scared. We will speak directly to them and work to improve their lives so they no longer have to feel that way.
But we will not deal with the likes of Malcolm Offord [Reform’s leader in Scotland] and his acolytes in the parliament.
In response, Reform UK Scotland’s deputy leader Thomas Kerr said accused the SNP of “political posturing and “anti-democratic”. He said:
We’ve not even stepped foot in the chamber yet.
These are politicians who are doing political posturing before we’ve even stepped foot in the chambers of the Holyrood parliament.
So I think it’s ridiculous for them, it’s anti democratic, we’ve seen this last year when John Swinney held his anti-democratic summit, it backfired on him then … this will backfire on him.
But Gillian Mackay, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said Kerr’s comments were “farcical”. Appearing on the same programme, she said:
I don’t think any of us should be dealing with Reform, given some of the tactics that they’ve employed across the country, targeting minorities across communities, dividing communities. One of their candidates wanted to deport all Muslims in the country.
It’s just farcical seeing Thomas saying that they’re going to be a constructive opposition, given what we’ve seen over the course of the election.
In the past mainstream politicians in EU countries adopted a ‘cordon sanitaire’ approach to far-right parties, refusing to engage with them on the grounds that they did not deserve democratic legitimacy. Swinney’s approach has some echoes of this – although in Europe mainstream parties are increasingly finding impossible to ostracise the far right because those parties are doing so well.
Until now, the ‘cordon sanitaire’ policy is not one that has been tried at Westminter, at Holyrood or in the Senedd because the far right has never had significant representation in those parliaments anyway. But Reform UK is now the joint second largest part at Holyrood, and the second largest party in the Senedd.
Reform UK reject claims they are far right. But Nigel Farage makes no secret of his admiration for far-right leaders like Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, and some experts argue that Reform does match a widely-used definition for the ‘radical right’ element of the far right.
Starmer says there will be 'no holding back' in call for UK to be 'closer to Europe', ahead of big reset speech tomorrow
There are two speeches coming up this week that in theory may determine Keir Starmer’s future.
Technically, the most important is the king’s speech on Wednesday, at the state opening of parliament (the formal start of the next parliamentary session). The king will list all the main bills the government hopes to pass over the next 12 months. Many laws will change as a result.
But a king’s speech rarely contains any surprises, because the government signposts well in advance (via white papers etc) what bills are going to be included. The House of Commons library has even published a briefing on what the speech is likely to include.
In practice, much more important will be what Starmer says in the speech he is due to give tomorrow. Labour MPs will be looking at it for evidence that he is responding to the scale of the challenge presented by the Thursday elections.
Starmer has already said that he wants a more ambitious, closer relationship with the EU and, in his Observer interview, he signals that this will be part of his message tomorrow. He says:
We have to be closer to Europe. I want to be full-throated about this, not holding back, no half measures in what I’m saying. We have to be bolder in the arguments that we are making in relation to our economy and in relation to our young people.
In her write-up of her interview, Rachel Sylvester says the government is close to agreeing a youth mobility scheme with the EU. She says:
Under the plan, which is expected to be up and running by 2027, Britons under 30 will be able to live or work in the EU. Young Europeans will also be allowed to come to the UK, with the number capped at “tens of thousands” a year. The new “youth experience visa” is set to give 18 to 30-year-olds the right to base themselves abroad for two to three years.
Negotiations are continuing and the UK is still refusing to agree to EU demands that its students pay the same university tuition fees as domestic students, rather than the higher rate paid by foreign students.
But the prime minister said a deal would be unveiled before the summer. “Brexit has held back our young people,” he said. “They should be free to work, study, travel in European countries, just as I was able to when I was growing up. That has been snatched away from young people because of Brexit. I’m not going to let Brexit stand in the way of their opportunities.”
Is there anything that Starmer can say tomorrow that will persuade sceptical Labour MPs that he has the potential to turn things round? It will be hard. Many of the MPs saying that Starmer deserves a chance to deliver the change needed sound as if they don’t actually believe he can do it but they do want a contest delayed until Andy Burnham can win a byelection.
One move that would be dramatic, and that would change the way Starmer is perceived, would be a commitment to join an EU customs union, or the single market – or even eventually to rejoin the EU itself. But Starmer has repeatedly said he feels bound by his manifesto red lines which ruled out these options for this parliament.
How might Keir Starmer be removed? Kiran Stacey and Alexandra Topping have a guide to how it might happen.
John McDonnell claims Catherine West being influenced by 'some in shadows' who want early contest
John McDonnell, the Labour MP who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, has criticised Catherine West for trying to trigger a leadership contest now. In a post on social media, he suggested that people in the “shadows” were influencing her. He said:
Catherine West is reflecting the upset in her constituency where so many seats were lost but I don’t think this is right approach. We need to discuss how we go forward & I worry some in shadows want to exploit her concerns and bounce us before we have a proper democratic process.
McDonnell was one of the first Labour MPs, as the results came in on Friday morning, to call for Keir Starmer to be replaced. But he said there should be an “orderly transition”, taking months (the position favoured by MPs wanting Andy Burnham to get the job – see 8.19am.)
McDonnell’s comment about people in the “shadows” allegedly exploiting West was probably a reference to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and his supporters. Streeting would benefit from a contest taking place while Burnham is unable to be a candidate, and Streeting is strongly distrusted and disliked by leftwingers like McDonnell.
Labour has 'disconnected' from working people, and will only deliver change if it challenges the wealthy, CWU leader says
Yassin El-Moudden is a Guardian reporter.
Another union leader has this morning accused the government of letting down working people. As Unite’s Sharon Graham criticised Keir Starmer on the BBC (see 9.42am), Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), was speaking to delegates at the union’s conference in Bournemouth.
Referring to the many Labour councillors who lost their seats in the elections this week, he said:
There’s nobody in this room who doesn’t understand that that wasn’t down to the work of Labour councillors out on the ground. That was down to the simple fact and truth that Labour has completely and utterly misread a lot of the situations that it faces and it has disconnected from working-class people …
Surely now, everybody knows with the situations that we face on inequality, on wealth and power, if you haven’t got the courage to stand against and challenge the wealthy and the powerful, and redistribute wealth and power back to working people, then don’t stand up and say that you’re gonna deliver real change because it ain’t gonna happen.
Updated
Ex-minister Josh Simons calls for Starmer to be replaced, saying under PM 'we constantly talk big, then act small'
Josh Simons, the former Cabinet Office minister, has become the latest Labour MP to call for Keir Starmer to quit. In an article published online by the Times he says that Labour’s problem is that “we constantly talk big, then act small” and he says that Starmer has “lost the country”.
Simons used to run the Labour Together thinktank before the general election and he resigned as a minister after it emerged that, when he was in charge, the thinktank had smeared journalists investigating its finances. Until then, he was seen as one of the rising stars of the 2024 intake, and his article is one of the most substantial contributions published since Thursday from a Labour MP saying the leadership needs to change.
Simons, MP for Makerfield, says he was struck by how working class voters turned against the party last week.
In Wigan, Labour lost every ward. Our vote tanked but turnout also increased, in some cases massively. Working class people queued up to vote against politicians who have built and defended the status quo.
Towns like mine birthed the Labour party. In Britain’s heartlands, workers, unions, leaders like Keir Hardie, and thinkers like the Webbs came together to secure freedom and justice for everyone. Now, people whisper that high turnout in working class estates is bad for Labour. When a party fears the people it was created to represent, it is marching towards extinction.
Identifying what has gone wrong, Simons says Labour under Starmer has not been sufficiently radical.
Our party, like many others, is stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment. We defer to elite interests and stakeholders. We ditch radical reforms that would give people power to change their own lives. We lack a bold agenda to harness transformative technologies like AI for public good. The foundations of our security — energy, water, housing and roads — have crumbled while lining the pockets of billionaires who control them. We Labour MPs must square up to the truth. These elections were not a normal mid-term drubbing, they were an unequivocal judgment that our actions do not meet the moment. We constantly talk big, then act small.
Simons has worked closely with Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, and he is not calling for a leadership contest now. He is calling for a gradual transition to a new leader, the strategy being advocated by soft-left Labour MPs who want Burnham to be given time to return to the Commons before Starmer quits. (See 8.19am.) Simons says:
I do not believe the prime minister can rise to this moment. He has lost the country. He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister.
Simons does not name his preferred candidate. In the articile he says “to avoid leadership chaos, senior figures across factions should come together to decide the best way forward”.
Referring to what a new leader should do, Simons says:
We in Labour console ourselves by saying we build things, where our opponents only tear them down. But too often we reject the demolition required to do the building. We must embrace risk. In a crisis, instead of closing our eyes and hunkering down, we must be alert, listen, adapt and take action.
As a model to follow, he cites the US president who oversaw the New Deal in the 1930s, FD Roosevelt. (In his new book on how to take on populists, the Labour MP Liam Byrne also cites Roosevelt as the sort of leader Labour should emulate.)
LabourList has a good list of all the Labour MPs who have said, or suggested, that Starmer should stand down since Thursday.
Here is Rowena Mason’s story from Bridget Phillipson’s interviews this morning.
Tice claims millions of voters 'enormously grateful' to crypto billlionaire who donated £5m for Farage's security
When Laura Kuenssberg asked Richard Tice about Nigel Farage’s failure to declare the £5m donation that he received before the 2024 general election, Tice also claimed that was a media smear.
Tice claimed that Farage did not have to declare the donation because it was a personal gift to fund his security. And he claimed, after voters did become aware of it (following the Guardian revelation), “they said, ‘We want more Nigel, we want more Reform leadership, we more Reform councils’.”
Tice said that £5m was probably “not enough” to pay for Farage’s security for the rest of his life. And he claimed that millions of voters were “enormously grateful” to Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire, who donated the money.
This was a personal gift, based around safety and security.
And, frankly, I’m delighted, I’m grateful. And millions and millions and millions of British voters are enormously grateful …
This complied with the rules. And thank heavens a wonderful person who’s given that gift is utterly determined to keep Nigel safe and Nigel secure.
When it was put to him that Farage has a problem because he has a track record of not declaring donations properly, Tice replied:
The problems that we have is an establishment media that is going to try anything all the time to do us down.
Updated
Richard Tice refuses to condemn Reform UK councillor over racist rant, implying it's just 'daft' comment or media smear
Kuenssberg asked about the candidate in Sunderland, now a councillor, who had talked of Nigerians being melted to fill potholes. She said the BBC were going to raise this before Bridget Phillipson raised the subject. (See 9.34am.)
Tice replied:
We have an internal party process, but here’s the point … We’ve heard all this smearing and sneering. Let me tell you what people really concerned about …
I’m going later to a campaign against the scourge of antisemitism which is the greatest threat facing us here in, particularly in London, but elsewhere across the UK. That’s what people are really concerned about. We’ve stood up strongly for the Jewish community.
And if people have said daft things, of course it will be looked at.
But, let’s just remember, we’ve got a a party that has been successful that is now the antisemitic Green party.
Kuenssberg asked: Is someone who suggested that Nigerians should be melted down to fill potholes someone that you are happy to have representing the party?
Tice replied:
This weekend we are celebrating our incredible successes. Like any party, you have internal party processes to look at where people have said or done the wrong thing.
Kuenssberg asked: So you condemn those remarks?
Tice replied:
I condemn anything that is wrong and inappropriate.
Then, as Kuenssberg tried to ask another question, Tice pressed on:
The point is voters have heard all of this smearing and this sneering against all of us, and they voted for more Reform because they want action. They want delivery. They’re sick of the failures of the Tories and Labour that have impoverished them because of mass immigration and because of net stupid zero.
Kuenssberg put it to Tice that asking him about a comment made by a Reform candidate was not a smear, but Tice again refused to directly condemn the remark. He said:
I’ve just said, we look at all these things, of course.
But the reality is voters are furious with the failures of Labour, the failures of the Tories. And they’ve said we want more reform, more success, more reducing backlogs and send in potholes. And they want Nigel to be the next elected prime minister of the United Kingdom.
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Laura Kuenssberg started her interview with Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, by putting it to him that, because Reform’s vote share was actually down in the elections, it might have peaked.
Tice suggested she should be congratulating the party for what it had achieved.
Unite leader Sharon Graham says she's 'very sure' Starmer won't lead Labour into next election
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, told Kuenssberg that she was “very sure” that Keir Starmer would not lead Labour into the next general election.
And she said that the problem with Labour’s response to the election defeats on Thursday was that ministers were just arguing that they needed to do a better job of explaining what they had done. She went on:
If you had the achievements in stereo, in everybody’s house in Britain, full blast, it still isn’t enough for what’s going on.
Of course, you can say breakfast clubs are a good thing. Of course you can.
But on their own, these achievements are not the same as having a different economic direction and a different political direction.
Asked if Starmer would lead Labour into the next election, Graham said:
That will not happen, I am very sure of that.
Graham accepted that, in the union movement as a whole, there were different views as to whether Starmer should stay.
But she said Unite wanted an orderly transition to a new leader.
Bridget Phillipson was the next interviewee on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, and she repeated many of the points that she made on Sky earlier.
But she also said she was really concerned about the division we are seeing in Britain. She said Reform UK did “incredibly well” in Sunderland, where they took control of the council. But she said that one of their candidates, who was elected as a candidate, is on record as suggesting “we should melt down Nigerians to fill in potholes”. She said that sort of racism had to be challenged.
Q: Is it true that Andy Burnham’s supporters have asked you to pull back because they don’t want to have a leadership contest now?
West did not answer the question. Instead she said she thought it was important to “move quickly” because “uncertainty” would be bad for Labour.
West sidesteps question about whether she would get enough MP backers to mount leadership challenge herself
Q: We spoke to Labour MPs, and most said you had no chance of getting the numbers needed for a leadership challenge?
West said she was a “fair person”. She said she would listen to what Starmer says in the speech planned for tomorrow.
If I’m still dissatisfied, I will put out my email to the parliamentary Labour party asking for names.
And the reason I’m doing that is not for me. It’s for working people. Because Labour is the only party that can beat Reform. We are the only national force that can take on Reform across the whole of the UK, and that will be the job coming up in the 2028 or ‘29 general election.
Q: But do you think you can get the numbers?
West said: “We will find out.”
She said Anna Turley, chair of the Labour party, was a good friend. She said she had asked her for a timetable for an orderly transition into a leadership contest.
And she repeated her point about wanting women to consider standing.
Kuenssberg started her main interview by asking West why she was asking the cabinet to act.
West replied:
What I’d like the cabinet to do is to reflect on the result from Thursday, where the voters sent us a very strong message that we are not good enough.
If you a school failing an inspection report, you would take the head out, wouldn’t you? Or you take the chair of the council out. The same goes for a hospital inspection or in a company. The CEO would have to take responsibility and the board would have to basically bring on new leadership.
West tells Phillipson in BBC studio she should consider standing for Labour leadership
At the start of her programme Laura Kuenssberg addressed Catherine West and Bridget Phillipson who were sitting waiting for the main interviews.
Kuenssberg told West she wanted a cabinet minister to challenge Keir Starmer. She said she was sitting next to one of them. What was her message to her?
West replied:
Well, there’s nothing stopping Bridget from standing. Why are all the men better than the women? We do need some senior women to step forward and to challenge for what is going to be a really difficult two and a half years between now and the general election, and also to take us into that second term.
In response, Phillipson said:
I love you dearly, Catherine, but I just disagree on this one.
On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said Labour was at risk of becoming “extinct”. It abandoned the working class, and the working class then chose to abandon Labour. Labour needed “a completely different economic direction and political direction”, she said.
At the end of the interview Trevor Phillips asked Phillipson if she thought Starmer would lead the party into the next election, and if she wanted him to.
Phillipson replied: “Yes on both counts.”
In the panel discussion in the studio after, the journalists Anne McElvoy from Politico and Patrick Maguire from the Times both said they thought Phillipson did not show 100% enthusiasm as she answered the question in the way she did.
Q: Angela Rayner says that Shabana Mahmood’s plan to extend the amount of time immigrants have to wait until they can apply for indefinite leave to remain is unfair. Will those plans change?
Phillipson said that was subject to consultation.
But it is right that we take action on immigration. It is also right that we demonstrate to the public that not only can we control the borders, we control who lives in our country.
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Trevor Phillips told Phillipson that Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown were serious people, and friends of his. But he mocked the idea that people who did not vote Labour last Thursday might have changed their mind if they had known Harman and Brown were getting appointments as government envoys.
Phillipson said that Harman and Brown were “tremendously talented people” who had “a lot to offer”.
Q: Starmer on Friday talked about Labour having made mistakes. But he did not say what they were. What have been the party’s biggest mistakes?
Phillipson said there had been a few. One of the biggest was cutting winter fuel payments for most pensions, she said.
Another problem was being “too gloomy and too negative”. She explained:
Early on people knew the country was in a mess. They didn’t need us to remind us to to remind them in such detail that the country was in a mess.
Labour losing support because people don't think it has delivered change they were promised, Phillipson says
Asked if she had a message for Labour MPs asked to support West’s leadership challenge, Phillipson said:
What I heard [from voters during the election] was not a desire for a leadership contest, for the Labour party to spend more time talking amongst ourselves. What I heard loud and clear from voters was their deep sense of frustration that they’d voted for change in 2024. They were hopeful that that change would be delivered, and they don’t feel that we as a party, or we as a Labour government, have delivered what they wanted.
West not likely to get backing she needs to launch leadership challenge, Phillipson says
Asked what would happen if Catherine West is able to get all the signatures she needs to launch a leadership challenge, Phillipson replied: “I don’t think that will happen.”
But she said that was not the point, because the party did need to respond to the election results.
Catherine West's call for leadership contest 'completely wrong', says Bridget Phillipson
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is speaking on Sky’s Sunday with Trevor Phillips.
Asked about Catherine West’s leadership challenge, she says:
Catherine is a great colleague, and I’ve known her a long time. And I have real respect for Catherine.
On this one, I do part company with her. I think she’s got this completely wrong.
She says Labour got a “real kicking” from voters.
But she says she does not think a leadership contest is the answer.
I don’t think … a leadership contest and all of the problems that that would bring is the answer.
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Starmer insists he won’t quit as PM, as former minister Catherine West seeks to trigger Labour leadership contest
Good morning. There were many predictions for Labour’s future ahead of the English, Scottish and Welsh elections, which have been terrible for the party, but there is one outcome foreseen by no one: a leadership challenge by Catherine West.
West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a junior Foreign Office minister until she was sacked in the reshuffle last year, announced yesterday afternoon that, unless a cabinet minister comes forward to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership by tomorrow morning, she will do it herself. She would need the support of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a contest; there is no evidence that she has those numbers and (for reasons that are probably a mystery to anyone under the age of 50 – more on that later) she is being described as a stalking horse.
While there may not be 81 Labour MPs who want to see West as party leader, there probably are many more than 81 who want to see Starmer replaced as leader befor the next election. Almost 40, by one count, have been going public since the elections on Thursday saying as much. But, in their comments, mostly they have been adopting the same line as St Augustine took on chastity; ‘Lord, give me a Labour leadership contest, but not yet.’
Why? Some of them have been saying Starmer should be given a chance to show that he can turn things round. But mostly the Labour MPs speaking out are on the soft left of the party and believe Andy Burnham would be the best replacement. They want a commitment from Starmer that he will stand down in the medium term, so that Burnham has time to get elected to parliament first so he can stand as a candidate.
West is trying to speed up the process. This is seen as fatal to Burnham and potentially helpful to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM, who would probably be the lead candidates in a contest held now. West has dismissed suggestion that she is acting on behalf of someone else. Yesterday she said there was “plenty of talent” in the cabinet capable of providing leadership. Since Thursday, Rayner has not yet commented on the election defeats; Streeting has said he supports Starmer.
The prospect of an early contest explains why some Labour MPs on the soft left are now reviving talk of trying to get Ed Miliband to stand. Here is our story by Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot.
Starmer insists he will not give up without a fight. He has given an interview to the Observer and he told the paper that he was engaged in a “10-year project of renewal” and that his intention was to lead the party into the next general election and serve a full second term.
He said:
I’m not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024. I’m not going to plunge the country into chaos.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is interviewed on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News. The other guests are: Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader; Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader set to become the next first minister of Wales; James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary; and Stephen Flynn, who is stepping down as SNP leader at Westminster having been elected to the Scottish parliament.
9.30am: Catherine West, the former Labour minister, is interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Phillipson, Tice, ap Iorwerth and Cleverly on on too.
1pm: A rally against antisemitism is happening outside Downing Street organised in support of Britain’s Jewish community.
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