Labour MP tells cabinet to challenge Starmer leadership: Live updates

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.

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.

For a leadership contest to be triggered, 20 per cent of the party’s MPs, would have to back a single contender.

West has insisted she has ten colleagues ready to support her bid for leadership.

She said:

My preferred option is for the cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent, and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role.

Then for others to come to the fore who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”

Donald Trump has congratulated John Swinney on his re-election in Scotland and praised him for winning whisky tariff relief – after the First Minister was ruthlessly mocked for taking the credit.

The SNP will remain Scotland’s largest party after winning 58 seats on Friday, a drop from the 64 MSPs elected for the party in 2021.

Mr Swinney had set his goal at winning an overall majority at Holyrood, saying that would provide a renewed mandate for a push for Scottish independence.

In a post on Truth Social, the US President described Mr Swinney as a ‘good man’ who deserved this ‘big election victory’.

Trump added that the First Minister had worked very hard, along with King Charles and Queen Camilla, to secure the removal of tariffs on ‘great Scottish whisky’ during the royal couple’s visit to the US earlier this month.

Previously, Trump had given credit for the move to Charles and Camilla, who he said had ‘got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking’.

However, the SNP subsequently claimed the removal of whisky tariffs was evidence of the First Minister ‘delivering’ for Scotland, saying: ‘John Swinney fought for Scotch whisky. And he delivered.’

Reform UK Scotland’s new MSPs have elected the party’s leader and deputy leader.

The party’s Holyrood group confirmed Thomas Kerr as its deputy while backing Lord Malcolm Offord, who had already been appointed leader by Nigel Farage, for the top spot.

Mr Kerr is a former Tory councillor who defected to Reform last year, and on Friday was confirmed as one of the party’s 17 MSPs at Holyrood.

He was Lord Offord’s de facto deputy and was widely considered to be up for the role, which he said he was “honoured” to accept.

Mr Kerr added: ‘Across Scotland, people are crying out for honest leadership, practical policies, and politicians who are prepared to stand up for ordinary working people.

‘Reform UK Scotland is building a movement that will challenge the status quo and bring real change to Scottish politics.

‘I look forward to working with colleagues across the country to grow our support and deliver a stronger voice for Scotland.”

Lord Offord said: ‘Thomas is a talented and dedicated politician who understands the concerns of people right across the country. His dedication and passion for delivering change make him the ideal choice as deputy leader.

‘Together, we will continue building a credible and ambitious movement focused on lower taxes, safer communities, economic growth, and restoring trust in politics.”

The party said Mr Kerr, one of its most vocal members on social media, would play a leading role in shaping party strategy and “engaging with voters” throughout Scotland.

Reform UK Scotland said the appointment “reflects the party’s determination to strengthen its leadership team and continue growing its support base nationwide”.

The party returned 17 MSPs at the Scottish election, tying with Labour for second place.

The SNP finished first with 58 MSPs, while the Greens, Conservatives and Lib Dems won 15, 12 and 10 seats respectively.

The Labour for Hornsey and Friern Barnet has given cabinet ministers just two days to challenge the Prime Minister as the party leader.

She has claimed that if they do not, she will take up the gauntlet herself.

Earlier today, she said: ‘I firmly believe that Keir should outline his intention to resign as Prime Minister.’

Ms West previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office from July 2024 until September 2025.

She has also been the Labour MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet since 2015.

The 69-year-old studied social work and modern languages at the University of Sydney before gaining a Master’s in Chinese studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Before becoming a politician, she was a social worker and had worked with refugees in England’s capital city during the Balkans crisis from 1998 to 2000.

She also led the Borough of Islington between 2010 and 2013.

Catherine West, a Labour MP who has called on cabinet ministers to challenge Sir Keir’s leadership, has not revealed who she believes would be the best person to fill his shoes.

She told BBC Radio 4:

I don’t have a candidate. That’s part of the problem.

But I think there are several people who would like to do it, who have been planning for months, but I’m very surprised that none of them has popped up today to say ‘I will do it’.

We need to bring on the person who can really sell Labour values and sell our programme.”

However, she was not all negative about Sir Keir, insisting the former lawyer had done ‘excellent’ work in rebuilding Labour as well as his work on Britain’s foreign policy.

But what we do worry about is taking the fight to Reform on the domestic agenda, which I think he has less of a grip of, and also trying to identify traditional Labour voters who we’ve lost so that we can get them back on side and we can win the country in the 2029 general election

We can’t just go on with our main spokesperson being Keir.”

Ex-Gogglebox star, Josh Tapper, 28, has become a Labour councillor for the Underhill ward in Barnet, London.

He quit reality TV nine years ago, after rising to fame when he was just 15 after he and his family joined the popular Channel 4 show.

He received 1,128 votes, winning the position along with fellow Labour candidate, Zahra Beg.

His 26-year-old sister Amy said on Instagram: ‘My brother is officially a Councillor! So so proud.’

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 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:

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.

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:

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