Catherine West backs down from Starmer challenge but urges him to go by September

Catherine West, the Labour MP who announced a challenge to Keir Starmer’s leadership, has changed course to say she instead wants the prime minister to set a timetable of September for his departure.West, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a former Foreign Office minister, announced on Saturday that she would seek to gather the 81 Labour MPs’ names needed to formally challenge Starmer, saying this was just a device to tempt others to stand and that she did not wish to take over.In a statement released after Starmer’s speech on Monday morning in which he said he would fight on despite terrible results for Labour in elections last week, West called for an orderly process for Starmer to depart. She said: “I have listened to the prime minister’s speech this morning. I welcome the renewed energy and ideas

What did Keir Starmer say in ‘last chance’ speech to save his premiership?

Keir Starmer’s speech and press conference on Monday morning was almost universally billed as his final chance to save his premiership. Was it enough? And what – if anything – did he actually offer?This is a line that could have appeared in any Starmer speech of the last 12 months, but this time a lot of Labour MPs would have wanted something new and substantial in policy terms to back it. And there was not.Yes, there was a lot of passion, and a lot of talk about fighting on. But the only policy offerings were either not new – a youth experience scheme as part of a reset with the EU – or already effectively the case, as with the announcement that British Steel will be nationalised

Starmer vows to prove doubters wrong as he tries to ward off leadership challenge

Keir Starmer has said he will prove his doubters wrong as he warned Labour was facing “very dangerous opponents” in a make-or-break speech, with leadership rivals on the brink of a challenge.Starmer said he would fight any leadership challenge and would not walk away from his responsibilities as prime minister.He promised he would seek a new deal with the EU including a sweeping youth mobility scheme, as well as nationalising British steel and promising a beefed-up youth guarantee of jobs and apprenticeships.But he warned his critics in the party they risked opening the door to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and said it was time to take a more robust approach to the right.“We are not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents, very dangerous opponents,” he said, saying Labour was the last defence against the country heading down a “very dark path”

Starmer faces fight to survive as Streeting and Rayner eye leadership bids

Keir Starmer faces a fight for his political life in the next 24 hours as potential Labour leadership rivals, from Wes Streeting to Angela Rayner, begin positioning themselves for a contest.Starmer is hoping to save his job on Monday with a speech promising to “face up to the big challenges” for the country on growth, energy, defence and Europe.However, his prospects of staying in No 10 appeared to be fading on Sunday after about 40 Labour MPs called for him to set a date to step down, including many backers of the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, who hope to pressure the prime minister into resigning.Leadership contenders were circling after a disastrous set of local election results in which the party lost support to Reform UK and the Greens. One ally of Streeting said: “Wes isn’t going to challenge Keir but he is preparing in case it all falls apart

Who are the main threats to Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership?

Keir Starmer has long been dogged by leadership rivals – despite only having won a huge majority two years ago. He insists there is no vacancy, and that he will fight on in No 10, seeking a second five-year term and a decade in the job. However, the various contenders to replace him have been organising for some time.Many others may consider throwing their hats into the ring if the contest opened up – from the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the armed forces minister, Al Carns. But here are Starmer’s main threats:Health secretaryThe health secretary is widely thought to be the most ready for a leadership contest, and the one who stands to gain from a competition right now – given Andy Burnham is not an MP and Angela Rayner still has an unresolved tax problem

Minority groups brace for surge in racism after Reform UK election gains

Conceding defeat at the election count at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena on Friday, the outgoing Labour leader of the city council, John Cotton, made a plea. “What I would encourage the next administration in this city to do, whatever form that administration takes, is that it ensures it champions the diversity of this city,” he said.Labour’s 14-year rule of the local authority had come to a crashing end, with Reform emerging as the largest party with 22 councillors so far, followed by the Greens on 19, albeit both parties a long way off the 51 needed for a majority.Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors across the local elections in England on Thursday and lost power in Wales for the first time. Nigel Farage described the election results, in which Labour also lost ground in Scotland, as a “truly historic shift in British politics”

‘London is a case study in hope’: Sadiq Khan on 10 years as mayor

When Sadiq Khan was first elected as mayor of London 10 years ago, Barack Obama was US president, the UK was still in the European Union and Leicester City had just been crowned the unlikely champions of the English Premier League.In the intervening decade, Donald Trump has gone from reality TV star to two-time US president, the UK has had six different prime ministers, and Brexit has convulsed the country. London has been rocked by tragedies ranging from terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower fire.Through it all, Khan, the son of a bus driver from south London, has remained a constant. Still less well known than his predecessors, the leftwing radical Ken Livingstone and the divisive Tory populist Boris Johnson, Khan has been mayor for longer than either and at the last election easily saw off his latest Tory challenger

The Tories are still on life support – so why is Badenoch in celebratory mood?

By any sane person’s reckoning, the Conservative party had a night to forget in Thursday’s local, mayoral and devolved elections. It lost about 500 councillors in England and ceded control of three local authorities to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK – losing to the rightwing upstarts in England, Wales and Scotland. Why, then, is Kemi Badenoch hailing these results as proof that “the Conservatives are coming back” – and why do many Tory MPs appear to agree with her?The Conservative leader was vocal on Friday about the eye-catching gains her party made in politically atypical London, where the Tories won back the totemic council of Westminster, took the most seats in Wandsworth council and saw off the threat from Reform in Bexley and Bromley.But it was hard to ignore the damage in her own back yard of Essex, where Badenoch and five other shadow cabinet ministers are MPs. Reform ended the party’s 25-year reign at the local authority, as well as taking the Tory-held Newcastle-under-Lyme and Suffolk, as well as making inroads in East and West Sussex

Angela Rayner calls blocking Andy Burnham’s return to parliament a mistake as pressure mounts on Keir Starmer – as it happened

Angela Rayner has just released a statement on the fallout from Thursday’s elections. The most significant passage is one in which she calls the decision to block Andy Burnham from parliament a mistake and says Keir Starmer ‘must now meet the moment’. Here is the key extract:double quotation markThis is bigger than personalities, but it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for - that means bringing our best players into Parliament - and embracing the type of agenda that has been successful at a local level, rather than reaching back to an agenda and politics that has failed people.These are the fights we need to have, and the change in direction we need to see