Keir Starmer has been keeping a low profile on the campaign trail as Labour braces for a battering at local elections.
The PM is spending the day chairing a Downing Street summit on anti-Semitism and a Cabinet meeting on the Middle East crisis.
Yesterday Sir Keir was in Armenia for a European political community summit. His only recent campaigning engagement is believed to have been folding leaflets in Camden – in his own Commons constituency – on Friday.
Aides insisted the premier, whose personal ratings are hovering near record lows, is busy with his official duties.
However, he did find time to watch his beloved Arsenal defeat Fulham in North London on Saturday.
Keir Starmer’s only recent campaigning engagement is believed to have been folding leaflets in Camden – in his own Commons constituency – on Friday
Aides insisted the premier, whose personal ratings are hovering near record lows, is busy with his official dutie
Sir Keir did find time to watch his beloved Arsenal defeat Fulham in North London on Saturday
Yesterday Sir Keir was in Armenia for a European political community summit
Scottish Labour’s leader Anas Sarwar this morning begged voters not to punish him for the PM’s ‘disappointing’ performance
Other Cabinet ministers have been desperately flooding key battlegrounds such as London and the North West where Labour looks set to lose huge numbers of councillors.
Polls have also been pointing to apocalyptic results in Scottish and Welsh Parliamentary elections.
Scottish Labour’s leader Anas Sarwar this morning begged voters not to punish him for the PM’s ‘disappointing’ performance.
He said supporting the party north of the border was ‘not an endorsement of Keir Starmer’, saying he shared the ‘anger’ and did not ‘recoil’ from his call for the premier to quit.
The PM is expected to do at least one more campaign visit before election day on Thursday.
Other recent visits by the PM include to Scotland on April 18, when he went on board a Vanguard submarine at the naval base in Clyde.
The PM is spending the day chairing a Downing Street summit on anti-Semitism (pictured) and a Cabinet meeting on the Middle East crisis
Other recent visits by the PM include to Scotland on April 18, when he went on board a Vanguard submarine at the naval base in Clyde
Speculation is swirling about Sir Keir’s prospects of hanging on in the aftermath of the elections.
A group of backbenchers could send an open letter urging the PM to set a timetable for his departure in the wake of local elections this week.
The move would emulate the coup staged by Gordon Brown’s allies against Tony Blair in 2006, when a slew of ministerial aides – including Tom Watson – quit. Within 24 hours Sir Tony had bowed to the pressure.
The plotting has been stepped up as more polls showed Labour on track for apocalyptic results on Thursday. Insiders fear the party could lose more than a thousand council seats, as well as being trounced in Scotland and Wales Parliamentary contests.
Sir Keir has been desperately casting around for a way to survive the backlash from his own MPs – after barely clinging on through the Mandelson scandal.
The Government has scheduled the King’s Speech for next Tuesday in a bid to ‘reset’ his premiership. Loyalists have also been warning about the consequences of switching leaders – suggesting it could mean an early general election.
