A Labour MP has told cabinet ministers to challenge Sir Keir’s leadership by Monday or she will.
Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, said if cabinet do not challenge Starmer as party leader, she will throw down the gauntlet for the party’s top role.
She told BBC Radio 4 that while she would prefer for cabinet to ‘reorganise themselves’ and replace the Prime Minister with their ‘best communicator’.
However, West has put cabinet ministers ‘on notice’, saying she would ask for her peers’ support to trigger a leadership contest if it is not done by Monday.
It comes as Starmer fights to keep his job today, facing mounting pressure from the backbenches to resign after Labour were hammered in the local elections.
He vowed not to resign and promised to set out the ‘convictions and values that drive me’ in the coming days, as he said he would bring more ‘hope’ to government.
More than 30 Labour MPs have so far called on him to either stand down or set a timetable for his departure.
In an attempt to relaunch his Premiership today, Sir Keir met with ex-Labour leader Gordon Brown at Downing Street.
He has also offered Baroness Harriet Harman a new job as his adviser on women and girls. She too was photographed leaving Number 10 this morning.
Labour has so far lost more than 1,300 seats in Thursday’s elections – with a small number of councils in England still yet to declare.
Sir Keir’s party also suffered a historic defeat in Wales where they lost power to Plaid Cymru after 27 years.
Follow live updates and reaction from the 2026 UK local election results below.
Labour MP tells cabinet ministers to challenge Sir Keir by Monday or he will
Catherine West, the Labour MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, said if cabinet ministers do not challenge Sir Keir as party leader by Monday, she will throw down the gauntlet for the party’s top role.
Labour makes losses in Croydon as council remains under no overall control
Croydon has remained under no overall control after both Labour and Conservatives failed to win the London borough.
Labour won 30 seats and Conservatives 27, both short of the 36 needed for a majority.
Labour came into the election with 34 seats and Conservatives on 33, but the Greens made gains and ended with eight, while two Reform UK and two Liberal Democrat candidates were elected.
Labour loses control of Bradford council
Labour has lost control of Bradford council, to continue the bad news for the party in England.
Reform UK cannot take control but are expected to be the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 seats to be declared, with Conservatives on 18 and Labour on 15.
Reform UK ended more than 50 years of Labour rule in Barnsley and also took Calderdale and Wakefield from Labour, which also lost control of Leeds.
By Tom Harris
Give him his due: Keir Starmer still knows how to surprise us.
When faced with local and devolved election results that presented an existential threat, both to him as Prime Minister and to his party, he rose to the challenge and… appointed two relics of New Labour as advisers.
Don’t get me wrong, Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman are highly regarded in the party, one as a former chancellor and prime minister and the other as a long-serving (and long-suffering) deputy leader. But what on earth is the question to which they are the answer?
Starmer’s stale and ailing administration needs an injection of dynamism and hope, not the stodgy, heavily baggaged figures of the past.
As if reheating the New Labour project – in the form of Peter Mandelson – hasn’t gone badly enough for Starmer?
Read more:
Starmer praises ‘talented’ interim Labour leader for Wales
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has praised the ‘talented’ interim leader of the Welsh Labour party and thanked him for ‘stepping up’.
He said a period of ‘necessary reflection and rebuilding’ was required after the disastrous elections for Labour which saw First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan lose her seat.
Sir Keir said:
Thank you to Ken Skates for stepping up to provide leadership for Labour in Wales and the Senedd as we begin a period of necessary reflection and rebuilding.
Ken is a talented and experienced MS, and I know he will do a fantastic job bringing Welsh Labour together and holding the new government to account for working people.
PM vows to set out the ‘path ahead’ in coming days
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to carry on in the wake of disastrous local election results.
The PM has faced calls to resign with more than 30 of his own MPs saying he should step down.
However, in a post on X this afternoon he said:
Four more councils to go…
With Lambeth declaring a Labour loss this afternoon, there are now just four English councils left to announce their results.
These are:
- Croydon
- Lewisham
- Tower Hamlets
- Bradford
Greens become largest party in Lambeth after Labour loses control
Labour has lost control of Lambeth council, pushing the party out of power in the London borough for the first time since 2006.
The party won 26 of the 63 seats in the face of a Green Party surge to take 29 seats, becoming the largest party, with Liberal Democrats on eight.
The result means Lambeth is the eighth London council previously run by Labour moving to no overall control.
Two other Labour-controlled London boroughs have been won by the Green Party, Hackney and Waltham Forest, while Westminster was taken by the Conservatives.
The Greens previously had just four seats in Lambeth, with Labour on 54.
IN PICTURES: Plaid Cymru celebrates election results in Wales
Rhun ap Iorwerth has said Plaid Cymru will seek to form a minority Government in Wales, as he spoke outside the Senedd after a historic election.
The Plaid Cymru leader hailed a ‘new beginning’ for Wales and said no Prime Minister ‘can cast Wales aside or turn a blind eye to our needs’ in a victory speech on the steps of the Welsh Parliament.
Plaid won the largest bloc in the Senedd, but fell short of a majority with 43 MSs.
Mr ap Iorwerth told reporters he ‘made it clear that my desire, were we able to, would be to form a minority government’ during the election campaign.
He added it was ‘clear now we are in that position’.
Interim leader of Welsh Labour is announced
Ken Skates has been appointed the interim leader of Welsh Labour.
Baroness Eluned Morgan resigned from the role on Friday after losing her seat in the Senedd.
Mr Skates will serve as leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election, the party said.
He said: ‘Today is just the beginning of a process that will help us to understand what we got wrong. Because we did get it wrong.
‘There is no reading of this result that endorses every action we have taken as a party and our task now is to take the time needed and to work out what has happened.
‘It is a task that will require every single one of us to take part in – every member, every councillor, every MS, MP, Lord and all roles in between.
‘But it is not a task that is beyond us.’
Breaking:Labour set to lose Lambeth Council
Labour is set to lose its control of Lambeth council in London.
While the results are still coming in, there are no longer enough seats for it to hold the local authority.
Labour has been in control of Lambeth council since 2006.
While Andy Burnham was being touted as a future PM following Labour’s disastrous election results…he was playing football
Andy Burnham has widely been touted as the next Prime Minister after Labour’s disastrous performance in the local elections.
And while the corridors of Westminster were alive with speculation about whether Sir Keir Starmer was going to step down and who might replace him, the Greater Manchester mayor was playing football.
He was pictured last night pulling on his boots to take part in a charity football match at FC United.
The Mayor, an Everton fan, is lining up for the homeless charity Booth Centre as they take on ‘The Rest of the World’ at Broadhurst Park in Moston.
He was seen with his kit bag in hand as he was ushered in through the back entrance of the ground.
