Keir Starmer faces a growing rebellion against his leadership tonight as Scottish Labour MPs break ranks to demand he quits Downing Street.
Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy MP Melanie Ward has become the fourth parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to announce their resignation from the UK Government and call for a change of Prime Minister.
Starmer had sought to face down critics on Monday with a promise to prove his doubters wrong – but a set-piece speech failed to quell demands that he quit or set out a timetable for his departure from discontented backbenchers, who numbered 61 by Monday evening.
In a statement, Ward listed Scottish Labour’s dire performance at last week’s Holyrood election among the reasons why she was now calling for a new leader.
She said: “The election result in Scotland last week was extremely disappointing, especially given the terrible record of the SNP.
“So many or my constituents told me that they could not vote Labour as long as Keir Starmer remains Prime Minister. Their anger at early errors like changes to the winter fuel payment remains palpable. Mistakes on moral issues like Gaza have also not been forgotten by the wider public.
“Keir Starmer did important work to change the Labour Party, and governing in a time like this will never be easy. But the message from last week’s elections was clear; the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of the public.
“Our country faces enormous challenges and we need a Labour government that can deliver the scale of change that this requires. It is clear that the Prime Minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change.
“It is for this reason that I am today resigning as a PPS and calling for Keir Starmer to resign as Leader of the Labour Party and set out a rapid process for the election of a new Leader and Prime Minister.”
View 2 ImagesMelanie Ward(Image: Daily Record)
Three other Scottish Labour MPs – Brian Leishman, Euan Stainbank and Alan Gemmell – have already called for Starmer to go.
But Ward’s resignation is significant given her position as a Government aide.
Gemmell said today: “Having campaigned weekly across Ayrshire since October it was clear the Prime Minister’s unpopularity would stop us from achieving a Labour victory in Holyrood. At door after door voters told us they disagreed with decisions that had been taken.
“Our country faces enormous challenges and we need a Labour government that can deliver the scale of change this requires. The message from last week’s elections is clear: the Prime Minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change.”
But other Scottish Labour MPs are critical of the moves against Starmer.
Paisley MP Alison Taylor said: “I back the Prime Minster who was elected on a five year mandate to change, protect, defend, enrich our United Kingdom which suffered a pandemic hot on the heels of a divorce from our biggest trading partners. It’s wrong not to back the Leader. Just wrong.”
Maureen Burke, the Labour MP for Glasgow North East, joined the growing number of discontented MPs saying her party is “bigger than one person”.
In a statement posted on X on Monday evening, she said: “When I see communities like mine, in Glasgow North East, turn against the Labour Party in such numbers, we must seek to understand why and refocus our efforts to win back their trust.
“Despite two decades of SNP failure, people were reluctant to give Labour a hearing and told me that they could not, in good faith, vote Labour while Keir Starmer is Prime Minister.
“Our party owes Keir a debt of gratitude for his leadership, but we are bigger than one person.
“With a heavy heart, I am calling on the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure and for our party to have a period of reflection with any and all candidates willing to have the chance to put themselves forward.”
Speculation about the Prime Minister’s future has intensified since last week’s elections, in which Labour lost almost 1,500 English councillors, went backwards in Scotland and slumped to third in Wales.
In a speech in central London, Starmer said he took “responsibility” for the losses but would fight on.
Monday’s address had been billed as a move to set out sweeping changes needed to tackle the “big challenges” facing Britain, and was widely seen as a “make-or-break” moment for the Prime Minister.
The PM set out a number of measures including legislation to nationalise British Steel, a ban on “far-right agitators” coming to the UK for a planned march on Saturday and a plan to put the UK “at the heart of Europe”.
He cast the current political moment as a “battle for the soul” of the UK, warning that if Labour failed, the country would head down “a very dark path”.
A handful of backbenchers spoke up in support of the Prime Minister afterwards, with Macclesfield MP Tim Roca and Gedling’s Michael Payne saying Sir Keir had demonstrated he understood “the scale of the challenge” facing the country.
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But others from across the party – going far beyond his usual critics on the left – continued to demand his resignation.