{"id":951408,"date":"2026-05-10T23:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/951408\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:23:16","slug":"phillipson-challenge-to-starmer-would-be-wrong-despite-election-kicking-labour-party-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/951408\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillipson: challenge to Starmer would be wrong despite election \u2018kicking\u2019 | Labour party leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour MPs would be wrong to remove Keir Starmer, even though voters have given the party a \u201creal kicking\u201d at the ballot box and people feel \u201cbitterly let down\u201d, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson<\/a>, has said.<\/p>\n

Phillipson said Labour<\/a> had been \u201ctoo gloomy\u201d and had made a mistake in trying to withdraw the winter fuel allowance, after the party lost control of about 40 councils and 1,500 seats at the local elections on Thursday.<\/p>\n

However, she said a leadership challenge from the Labour backbencher Catherine West would be \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

West, a former minister, said she would begin collecting the 80 necessary names for a challenge on Monday. She is not widely considered a viable candidate but if she triggers a contest then other contenders such as Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband could come forward.<\/p>\n

A contest in the coming weeks would rule out a return for Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who is not in parliament. The Guardian reported on Saturday<\/a> that MPs from Labour\u2019s left are expected to urge Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days.<\/p>\n

About 40 Labour MPs have said they think Starmer should quit or name a date to go. The latest to add his support to West was Josh Simons, the former Cabinet Office minister, who said Starmer must arrange an orderly transition to a new leader as he had \u201clost the country\u201d and was incapable of \u201crising to this moment\u201d. Writing in the Times, he said: \u201cTo avoid leadership chaos, senior figures across factions should come together to decide the best way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing a threat to his premiership, Starmer gave an interview to the Observer<\/a> saying he wanted to serve for 10 years. He has also attempted to refresh his government by bringing back the former prime minister Gordon Brown as an adviser on finance, and Harriet Harman as an adviser on women and girls.<\/p>\n

However, those in cabinet with leadership ambitions are weighing whether to attempt to oust him.<\/p>\n

Phillipson joined other Starmer loyalists in saying it would be the wrong time to change leader.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Sky News, she said: \u201cFriday morning, I felt absolutely sick to the bottom of my stomach about the scale of the defeat that we\u2019d suffered. We got a real kicking from the voters. There\u2019s no escaping that, and we have to reflect seriously on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she added: \u201cI\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what I heard was not a desire for a leadership contest, for the Labour party to spend more time talking amongst ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I heard loud and clear from voters was their deep sense of frustration that they\u2019d voted for change in 2024, they were hopeful that that change would be delivered and they don\u2019t feel that we as a party or we as a Labour government have delivered what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told BBC\u2019s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: \u201cI\u2019m not going to come on here and say that there aren\u2019t big and serious issues that we have to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can and we will. But I just do not believe that the message we should take from these elections is that we ought to spend time as a party amongst ourselves, arguing amongst ourselves, fighting amongst ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need to tell a better story. We do need to deliver faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Sharon Graham, the leader of the Unite trade union, a significant donor to Labour, said she wanted to see more concrete policies to help working-class voters who had deserted the party.<\/p>\n

She said Labour had no right to exist and could become \u201cextinct\u201d unless it changed course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour MPs would be wrong to remove Keir Starmer, even though voters have given the party a \u201creal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-951408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116552859986264548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}