Labour Left-wingers hit the panic button over Wes Streeting plotting to succeed Keir Starmer today.
The PM’s grip on power is looking increasingly tenuous, despite his tone-deaf protestations that he can stay on as PM for another eight years.
However, while a leadership contest seems to be looming large after the local elections meltdown, the timing is regarded as critical.
Alarm has been raised that backbencher Catherine West’s threat to launch a ‘stalking horse’ challenge to Sir Keir as early as tomorrow could put Mr Streeting – seen as on the Blairite wing of the party – into No10.
Some believe the Health Secretary’s allies want to force a leadership election 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.
The tactic has echoes of the Schlieffen Plan, which Germany developed to try and win on two fronts in the First World War.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Ms West was ‘reflecting the upset in her constituency’ but did not have the ‘right approach’.
‘We need to discuss how we go forward and I worry some in shadows want to exploit her concerns and bounce us before we have a proper democratic process,’ he said.
One veteran Labour strategist told the Daily Mail: ‘It would suit Wes to force a contest while Angela is still under investigation.’
Another insider pointed out that the Schlieffen plan failed.
Josh Simons – formerly regarded as an ally of the PM until he was forced to resign in February – joined the growing list of rebels demanding he steps aside this morning. He said the PM had ‘lost the country’ and should allow an ‘orderly transition’.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham also said she believed the premier is doomed.
Sir Keir’s bid to stabilise the situation yesterday by bringing veterans Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman back into Government was roundly ridiculed by MPs and ministers.
The PM is now facing a make-or-break moment tomorrow, when he has promised a big speech that will explain how he can save Labour from oblivion. He is expected to talk up his plans to unwind Brexit, a key demand of many London MPs.
Floundering Keir Starmer vowed to stay as PM for another eight years today despite a Labour mutiny gathering pace
Sir Keir’s bid to stabilise the situation yesterday by bringing veterans Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman (pictured) back into Government was roundly ridiculed by MPs and ministers
Backbencher Catherine West is threatening to launch a ‘stalking horse’ leadership bid in the morning unless the Cabinet acts
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell joined other Left-wingers in voicing alarm that Ms West’s leadership mutiny could ‘bounce’ the party into choosing its new leader quickly
Ms West shocked Westminster by declaring her intentions to challenge Sir Keir last night. She appeared to backtrack slightly this morning by saying she will wait until after the PM’s speech before sending her message email to colleagues.
Ms West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, denied that she wants to thwart Mr Burnham’s chances.
‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘I think Andy should be part of the leadership team, and I would expect that any leader will want to appoint Andy, perhaps, to the House of Lords, because you could be a minister in the House of Lords, and he would make a fantastic contribution.
‘Whether he can necessarily be the prime minister from the House of Lords, that would be very unusual.’
Ms West said: ‘What I’d really like to see is not a leadership election, but for (the Cabinet) to come together and appoint somebody amongst them who can lead us and give us a vision of how we’re going to defeat Nigel Farage and the right wing in the coming general election, which could be as soon as possible.’
The backing of 20 per cent of Labour’s 403 MPs – a total of 81 – is needed to spark a vote. Ms West acknowledged she only has 10 supporters so far, but argued that could increase quickly.
Left-wing MP Richard Burgon said Ms West wanted a ‘Cabinet stitch-up’.
‘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,’ he posted on X.
‘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. It may even be that those people help secure the 81 nominations needed to kickstart any leadership race.’
Even loyal MPs are downbeat about the chances Sir Keir can turn his fortunes around, after repeated failed ‘reset’ attempts.
‘Lots of people have done an anti-establishment vote and the answer is Gordon, Harriet and one degree closer to the EU,’ one despairing backbencher told the Daily Mail.
‘That will really p*** people off in Brexit areas… they are screaming at us and already think we don’t listen.’
A former minister said of the pro-EU message: ‘This is going to go down like a cup of cold sick in the Red Wall. He does these speeches and never has anything to say.’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was sent out to defend the PM in TV studios this morning.
She said Ms West was ‘completely wrong’ to try to trigger a leadership contest. ‘What I do recognise, however, is that Catherine, like lots of other colleagues, and like lots of candidates who stood in the elections that we’ve just had, are really hurting, really hurting this morning, and I feel that too,’ she said.
Ms Phillipson insisted that Labour’s ‘red lines’ on not rejoining the EU customs union or single market remain in place.
‘We hold to what we said in our manifesto, but we do need a closer relationship with Europe,’ she told Sky News.
She also said there would be no U-turn on Shabana Mahmood’s tough immigration crackdown, which has faced anger from many on the party’s Left.
Ms Phillipson argued that the Government has ‘another three years to deliver’, while ruefully acknowledging that there had been ‘a few’ mistakes.
She singled out axing the winter fuel allowance, and ministers being ‘too gloomy and negative early on’.
Asked whether the PM could really serve another eight years, Ms Phillipson said: ‘What Keir was talking about is a decade of national renewal.’
However, she said she supported Sir Keir to lead the party into the next election.
Deep divisions are emerging within Labour over whether to focus on combating the Reform surge in northern and Midlands heartlands, or position to quell the Green threat in former urban strongholds.
One Government adviser predicted Sir Keir – whose own constituency is in central London – will side with the metropolitan faction.
‘Going back to a Red Wall strategy would be the fastest way to guarantee a coup. The Parliamentary Party just would not wear it,’ the aide said.
Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s former chief of staff, was seen as the main champion of policies targeted at Brexit-backing areas before he resigned amid the Mandelson debacle.
In an interview with the Mirror, Sir Keir was asked if he would lead Labour into the next election and serve a full term in office.
‘Yes I will, and I’ve always said it’s a decade of national renewal, where the legacy we inherited was an appalling legacy on all fronts, not just the economy, which was broken,’ he said.
‘Public services were broken and actually the situation was worse when we got into office than we thought beforehand.
‘There has to be a 10-year project of renewal. If it’s to be done properly, that’s how it needs to be done.’
Pressed if he would fight any challenge, he said: ‘I’m not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024.’
So far the Cabinet has held off joining calls for Sir Keir to go – although some including Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper have offered notably lukewarm support.
Ms Rayner has also stayed silent, although there are rumours of a statement later.
She posted pictures on social media last night of her swimming and caked in mud at a charity fundraiser.
Some senior Labour figures believe her prospects have been badly damaged by Reform sweeping the local council in her constituency. She had been pictured canvassing in London during the campaign, which many saw as preparation for a leadership bid.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was sent out to defend the PM in TV studios this morning
Angela Rayner posted pictures on social media last night of her swimming and caked in mud at a charity fundraiser
One senior Government aide told the Daily Mail that MPs were ‘going wild’.
‘It always felt like the most unpredictable element of this weekend – groups of angry backbenchers going wild,’ they said.
Sir Keir failing to deliver a speech that moves the dial tomorrow could swing opinion against him.
‘There is no sign that the Mandelson stuff has made Keir take an interest in how politics works,’ one senior Labour figure said. ‘He just doesn’t really care and that is why he f***s things up.
‘He’s not going to change now but that’s OK – we just need him to be a slightly better version of himself.’
