Unions pile in on Starmer after election catastrophe: Live updates

Following Unite chief Sharon Graham’s scathing attack on Keir Starmer this morning, Dave Ward – the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) – has now also come out against the Labour premier.

Speaking to delegates at the party’s conference in Bournemouth, 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.

Labour MP Josh Simons has added his name to a growing list of disillusioned party representatives calling on Sir Keir Starmer to go.

Formerly considered a Starmer loyalist, Mr Simons is a previous director of the Labour Together think tank, which was important to Sir Keir’s rise to power.

Sharing his article for The Times to social media, Mr Simons admitted the piece was ‘not easy to write’.

But in a rallying call, he added, ‘We Labour MPs must square up to the truth. These elections were not a normal mid-term drubbing, they were an unequivocal judgement that our actions do not meet the moment.’

He wrote in The Times:

Putting the people I represent and the country I love first, 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.

Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will break her silence ‘shortly’, it is understood.

The MP, who is currently sorting out her tax affairs, is yet to comment on whether she intends to launch a bid to take over from Sir Keir in the wake of dire local election results.

Ms Rayner is seen as one of the favourites to replace Sir Keir and her response is being intensely scrutinised.

Q Manivannan, 29, is celebrating a local election victory after being voted in to Holyrood as an MSP this week.

Dr Manivannan, a non-binary Indian immigrant who came to Scotland in 2021, sent messages to party colleagues asking them to donate to a fundraiser seeking to collect £2,089 for a visa.

You can read the full report here:

Reform UK has suspended a councillor elected in Sunderland on Friday after he was accused of racism over a social media post.

In 2024, Glenn Gibbins had written on social media: ‘Carnt believe amount of nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!’

Darren Grimes, deputy leader of Reform-led Durham county council was asked about it on today’s BBC’s Politics North programme.

He said:

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 today Reform deputy leader Richard Tice refused to condemn Mr Gibbins over his post.

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 I and arguing for economic justice.

The leader of the performing arts union Equity has called for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to set out a timetable in which he ‘resigns and is replaced’.

Paul W Fleming also told his union’s annual conference in Durham that Equity opposes giving Reform a platform, and what they threaten to do to the union movement.

He told delegates that among Reform voters are ‘people who are actually frustrated about the economic and social situation in which we find ourselves… who are desperately grabbing around for a different answer’ and said that for this, ‘there is one person who is disproportionately to blame: not Nigel Farage, but Keir Starmer’.

He said the rise of the far right, including Reform, was potentially the biggest threat to any union, adding: ‘Not every Reform voter. Not every Reform council candidate, but the leadership, direction and policies of that party are those of the far right.

‘I have no shame in saying so, and I have no shame in saying that this union opposes them, opposes giving them a platform, and opposes what they threaten to do to our movement and trade union.’

He concluded that people were frustrated about the current economic and social situation, which he said has seen wage stagnation and austerity leading to desperation for a different answer.

‘There is one person who is disproportionately to blame: 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.’

A cabinet source has told Sky News they think it’s 60-40 odds that a ‘disorderly’ leadership contest is called within the next few days.

Another insider said:

I appreciate these things can spiral, and this is clearly a moment of danger for Keir Starmer, especially if, as I assume is the case, the speech tomorrow is underwhelming.

Peter Hain, who held various cabinet posts between 2005 and 2010 and who is now a Labour peer told Radio 4’s the World at One that Keir Starmer must now implement fundamental change – if he wants to survive.

He said:

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.

Mr Hain also insisted the Prime Minister must ‘abandon Tory orthodoxy’.

Labour MPs are not the only ones celebrating backbencher Catherine West’s leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer.

In a post on X, the Australian journalist Michael West issued a show of solidarity with his 59-year-old sister.

He observed: ‘Seems my sister has just launched a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer.’

Alarm has been raised that Ms West’s threat to launch a ‘stalking horse’ challenge to Sir Keir as early as tomorrow could put Wes Streeting – seen as on the Blairite wing of the party – in No10.

Some believe the Health Secretary’s allies want to force a leadership crisis before Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, favoured by many on the Left, can find a way of returning to the Commons.

Having neutralised Mr Burnham, Mr Streeting would then try to see off the challenge from his other big rival Angela Rayner – who is still wrangling with HMRC over her unpaid stamp duty.

Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East, appears to share the view of many other Starmer-skeptics in his party.

He believes Keir Starmer should resign – but that Catherine West’s leadership bid plot is not the answer.

Speaking to Sky News, he said:

We need a full process which doesn’t just involve members of the cabinet or MPs but involves our trade unions as well, party members and Labour councillors – and those who through no fault of their own lost their seat.