Starmer ally calls for PM resign and claims he has ‘lost the country’

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.

Reform did well in the local elections – but this might not be the triumph it first appeared to be.

The party was easily beaten by Plaid in Wales, and won fewer seats in Scotland than it had hoped.

Although victorious in parts of England, it performed poorly in university towns and prosperous urban areas, and sometimes didn’t figure at all.

A general election could be three years away. But sensible people on the Right should be asking themselves what happens if, as seems likely, Reform fails to win outright.

You can read the full analysis by Stephen Glover here:

The hosts at the Rest Is Politics have turned their attention to the Green Party’s Zack Polanski – noting the telltale signs he might be chronically online.

It comes as an investigation by the Economist found he liked 35,000 posts on one social media site in a 12-month period.

Around a third of the posts were said to have included his name.

Alastair Campbell said: ‘That’s a lot. That’s a lot of activity.’

Angela Rayner last night posted pictures of herself in murky waters as she went for a ‘Tough Mudder’ charity challenge swim.

The former Deputy Prime Minister was pictured clambering over a board, covered in dirt posing with fellow finishers.

Ms Rayner has been seen as one of the favourites to replace Sir Keir – though she is still straightening out her unpaid stamp duty affairs with HM Revenue & Customs.

A whistleblower has claimed the illegal practice of ‘family voting’ is rife.

One local government source revealed Manchester City Council had received 50 reports of the practice taking place.

You can read the full report by assistant investigations editor Mark Hookham here:

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, this morning joined calls for the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure.

The boss of Labour’s biggest union donor told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuennsberg:

Personally, for me and my members in Unite, we’ve already cut our affiliations by 40 per cent because they haven’t been doing stuff for workers in a number of areas.

We will be saying that what we want is an ordered transition. And actually if Keir cares about the country as much as he says he cares about the country, what he needs to do now is to say, okay, look, this hasn’t worked.

Despite this, Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday he sees himself governing for another decade.

The Chancellor is said to have had an ‘almighty row’ with her younger sister Ellie at her son’s birthday after she joined Sir Keir Starmer in voting to block Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

To add to the drama, the siblings were also apparently playing The Traitors board game – based on the hit reality TV show about lies, deceit and treachery.

You can read the full report by political reporter Gabriel Millard-Clothier here:

Catherine West today told the Education Secretary that she should consider standing for the Labour leadership.

It comes after Bridget Phillipson this morning insisted Ms West was ‘completely wrong’ to challenge Sir Keir Starmer.

Ms West said:

Well, there’s nothing stopping Bridget from standing. Why are all the men better than the women?

We do need some senior women to step forward and to challenge for what is going to be a really difficult two and a half years between now and the general election, and also to take us into that second term.#

Ms Phillipson responded:

I love you dearly, Catherine, but I just disagree on this one.

One of the Prime Minister’s own senior MP’s has launched a scathing attack on the premier – accusing him of ‘losing the plot’ over the threat to his leadership.

Manchester MP Graham Stringer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If Keir ever had the plot, then he has lost it. It is a parody of the politics of 16 years ago.

‘Neither Harriet nor Gordon are able to solve an impossible problem – how to improve a very unpopular Prime Minister.’

You can read the full story by Glen Owen and Dan Hodges here:

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has insisted Catherine West is ‘completely wrong’ to launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer.

Speaking on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, she said she understood that many colleagues feel ‘sick’ about the ‘scale of defeat’ the party had suffered this week.

However, she added:

I’ve knocked on doors right across the country and in my own community, as colleagues will have done too and as party members will have done as well.

And what I heard was not a desire for a leadership contest, for of the Labour Party to spend more time talking amongst ourselves.

What I heard loud and clear from voters was their deep sense of frustration that they’d voted for change in 2024, they were hopeful that that change would be delivered and they don’t feel that we as a party or we as a Labour government have delivered what they wanted.

Reform UK’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has joked that Andy Burnham is now ‘scouring the election results’ to find a Labour safe seat to run in.

Supporters of the Greater Manchester mayor have urged backbencher Catherine West to put her Labour leadership bid plan on hold.

It comes as they envision a scramble to first find Mr Burnham a parliamentary seat so he can fight a by-election and come back to Westminster.

However, it is thought that Ms West remains unpersuaded.

Reform UK romped to victory in this week’s local elections with gains of more than 1,400 council seats across England.

Meanwhile Labour suffered historic defeats in Wales and Birmingham, with Nigel Farage having boasted both Labour and the Conservatives would face historic losses.

The Greens meanwhile heaped further misery onto Sir Keir’s party by taking the Hackney mayoralty and gaining more than 350 seats across England.

You can see the full results here: