{"id":479257,"date":"2026-05-11T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/479257\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:01:12","slug":"forty-labour-mps-want-keir-starmer-to-resign-as-he-fights-for-his-job-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/479257\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty Labour MPs want Keir Starmer to resign as he fights for his job \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More Labour Party<\/a> MPs have called on UK prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> to resign after he sought to stabilise his leadership in what was billed as a make-or-break speech.<\/p>\n

Under Labour rules, at least 81 MPs, or 20 per cent of the total parliamentary party, need to back a challenge for one to happen. A poll by Sky News put the number of MPs who have explicitly called for him to step down at 40.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, Starmer said he would fight any leadership challenge and would not walk away from his responsibilities as prime minister.<\/p>\n

He promised he would seek a new deal with the European Union<\/a> including a sweeping youth mobility scheme, as well as nationalising British steel and promising a beefed-up youth guarantee of jobs and apprenticeships.<\/p>\n

But he warned his critics in the party they risked opening the door to Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s Reform UK<\/a> party and said it was time to take a more robust approach to the right. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents, very dangerous opponents,\u201d he said, saying Labour was the last defence against the country heading down a \u201cvery dark path\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0If cabinet members start resigning, Keir Starmer is probably finishedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In a boost for Starmer, Catherine West, the Labour MP who announced a challenge to his leadership, has changed course to say she instead wants the prime minister to set a timetable of September for his departure.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

In a statement released after Starmer\u2019s 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: \u201cI have listened to the prime minister\u2019s speech this morning. I welcome the renewed energy and ideas. However, I have reluctantly concluded that this morning\u2019s speech was too little, too late.<\/p>\n

\"KeirKeir Starmer giving a speech at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, on Monday, setting out plans to build ‘a stronger, fairer Britain’. Photograph: James Manning\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

This means West\u2019s plan to simply gather names calling for a future contest would have no force under the rules, but would instead act as a de facto no-confidence vote.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s change of plan potentially takes some of the urgency out of the situation, amid speculation that expected rivals such as Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Angela Rayner, Starmer\u2019s former deputy, would launch imminent bids.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a longer timetable would allow time for Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, to potentially return to parliament and join the contest although after his speech, Starmer said whether he would be allowed to do so was still a matter for Labour\u2019s national executive committee, which blocked him in January.<\/p>\n

Speaking to a conference of the Communication Workers\u2019 Union in Bournemouth on Monday, Rayner said Burnham should not have been stopped from contesting the Gorton and Denton byelection, which Labour then lost. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mistake that the leadership of our party should put right,\u201d Rayner said. She said Labour should put \u201cthe common interests ahead of factionalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, Starmer vowed to prove his \u201cdoubters\u201d wrong as he fought back against calls for him to quit.<\/p>\n

He said his party would \u201cbe better and do better\u201d as he took responsibility for Labour\u2019s electoral mauling across England, Scotland and Wales last week.<\/p>\n

Describing the election results as \u201ctough\u201d, he told an audience in central London: \u201cI get it, I feel it and I take responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not just about taking responsibility for the results. It\u2019s about taking responsibility to explain how, as a political and electoral force, we will be better and do better in the months and years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s speech on Monday was billed as setting out sweeping changes to tackle the \u201cbig challenges\u201d confronting the UK in a bid to shore up support for his premiership.<\/p>\n

The UK prime minister pledged to go further in his \u201creset\u201d in relations with the EU, saying his Government would be defined by putting Britain at the \u201cheart of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

He pledged to deliver \u201can ambitious youth experience scheme\u201d with the EU so that \u201cour young people can work and study and live in Europe, a symbol of a stronger relationship and a fairer future with our closest allies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Domestically, Starmer pledged to bring forward new legislation to nationalise British Steel, saying a commercial sale of its Scunthorpe steel works had not been possible since the Government took over the running of the plant last year.<\/p>\n

And he vowed to block \u201cfar-right agitators\u201d from coming to the UK for a march planned on Saturday, saying the demonstration was \u201cdesigned to confront and intimidate\u201d. \u2013 The Guardian. Additional reporting: PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More Labour Party MPs have called on UK prime minister Keir Starmer to resign after he sought to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,2219,13,14,6,19,17,5446,20568,11,12,15,16,5,20567,20566,23550,7,8,1294,17331],"class_list":{"0":"post-479257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-labour-party-uk","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-nigel-farage","25":"tag-reform-uk","26":"tag-scotland","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116556312569700421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}