{"id":952122,"date":"2026-05-11T07:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952122\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:20:29","slug":"haringey-mps-stalking-horse-challenge-to-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952122\/","title":{"rendered":"Haringey MP\u2019s \u2018stalking horse\u2019 challenge to Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP Catherine West says she will seek nominations to run against the prime minister if the cabinet doesn\u2019t move to tackle to the situation following Labour\u2019s crushing losses in this week\u2019s elections<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Hornsey and Wood Green MP Catherine West (credit parliament.uk)<\/p>\n

A Haringey says she will run for the leadership of the Labour Party if the cabinet does not move to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer by tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Catherine West, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, is putting herself forward as a \u2018stalking horse\u2019 candidate in a bid to force change following her party\u2019s heavy defeats in this week\u2019s elections, which saw it lose control in both boroughs covered by her parliamentary constituency.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018stalking horse\u2019 refers to a candidate who enters a political contest not expecting, or necessarily even seeking, to win outright but with the aim of testing support for alternatives to the current leadership and encouraging others to put themselves forward.<\/p>\n

A previous example came in 1989, when Conservative MP Sir Anthony Meyer was\u00a0the first to challenge then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher<\/a>. Despite Meyer\u2019s heavy defeat, Thatcher was forced to step down under a year later following a more strongly-backed challenge from former cabinet minister Michael Heseltine.<\/p>\n

Announcing her own possible stalking horse bid, West\u00a0told the BBC yesterday<\/a>\u00a0that if none of Starmer\u2019s cabinet decided to throw their hat in the ring then she would do so herself tomorrow (Monday).<\/p>\n

Having declared her intention to stand, she would then need to be nominated by 81 of the party\u2019s MPs to force a full contest including Labour Party members.<\/p>\n

West said on Radio 4\u2019s\u00a0PM\u00a0programme: \u201cMy preferred option is for the cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there\u2019s plenty of talent, and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday<\/a>\u00a0she expanded on her thinking in response to results of Thursday vote. She said that while she personally gets on well with prime minister \u201chis approach is not cutting through\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cthe results over the past 48 hours are nothing short of disastrous. Unless things change, we risk Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cThe Labour Party need the chance to have an honest conversation about how we deliver the change we promised in 2024, and that requires new leadership which understands the urgent and real concerns of people across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Labour clearly has big problems in a wider sense, the MP may be particularly concerned by local developments in Haringey and Barnet.<\/p>\n

In Haringey,\u00a0Labour lost control of the council for the first time since 1971<\/a>\u00a0with the Greens becoming the largest party in the borough, while in the part of Barnet which is in West\u2019s constituency, Friern Barnet ward, Labour councillors including leader Barry Rawlings\u00a0narrowly held off a challenge<\/a>\u00a0from the Greens as they lose their majority in the borough as a whole.<\/p>\n

The combination of these results\u00a0might see West\u2019s seat<\/a>, where she had a huge majority of 21,475 at the 2024 general election, emerge as a surprise target for the Greens. Ominously for the MP, despite her big win, the Green\u2019s significantly increased their vote share in second place.<\/p>\n

Independent news outlets like ours \u2013 reporting for the community without rich backers \u2013 are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, or one-off donation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP Catherine West says she will seek nominations to run against the prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,265709,393,4884,196507,265710,528,257,6406,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-952122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-catherine-west-mp","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-haringey-council","13":"tag-hornsey-and-friern-barnet","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-mps","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116554737135075857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952122","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=952122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}