2 MINS AGO! Parliament ERUPTS as more Labor MPs turn against Keir Starmer

Añadido: 2026-05-23

[00:00:05]Coming up on a Chopper's Political Podcast. I'm going to say this cuz I'm confident he's not listening. West Street seems so last season, guys.

[00:00:15]>> [music] [music] >> Welcome back to Chopper's Political Podcast where I bring you the best guest gossip news and stories from our studios at GB News here in the heart of Westminster. My name is Christopher Hope and I'm GB News's political editor. Now, I was away last week. Apparently it was quite a quiet week. Nothing was planned and nothing really happened. At least I thought so, but I've looked at my socials and I'm worried I missed something. With me to help out on what exactly happened last week are my brilliant colleagues at GB News, Tom Harwood, our deputy political editor, and Katherine Forster, of course, our chief political correspondent. Well, was it okay? What happened? I mean, I was I was feet up in in a Greek beach. Oh, nothing. Everyone was very calm. It was uh Kier Starmer gave a speech on Monday.

[00:01:04]Yes, it was one of the uh big sort of crunch points. And everyone loved it.

[00:01:08]And down so brilliantly not a single MP said he should resign. I'm sorry. In a parallel universe, >> Okay. Everything imploded.

[00:01:15]>> I know I of course I know that. That's what happened. But but let Tom make a good point there. Let let's start with that speech. You were there at the speech, Katherine. You asked a question, didn't you? I think about the red wall and connections.

[00:01:24]>> So, And how was the speech?

[00:01:25]>> We were lucky Uh last Monday.

[00:01:26]>> We were lucky to get a question. The Prime Minister doesn't always give, but he did and I was grateful for that. Uh so, what struck me about this reset speech, all we really got was saying he'd go and nationalize British Steel, which we sort of knew anyway. That was in the King's speech there in the following Wednesday. I mean, they're standing in London. So, my question was basically you've lost your core working class vote in Scotland, in Wales, which is no longer labor, across the red wall because working class communities feel that the Labour Party has abandoned them, and you don't get it. Are they wrong? Now, I know politicians often don't answer questions, uh, but it was quite spectacular how obviously he didn't answer the question because he didn't discuss that at all.

[00:02:16]He simply went into a tirade against Nigel Farage, uh, and talking about the EU, and his basic message is, uh, you know, we're in a hole, but we need more Europe.

[00:02:27]>> More EU, not less.

[00:02:29]>> is going to help bring those Now, there were there were some cheers in the room, some boos for negative questioning, but the speech didn't really catch fire. It was meant to be, Tom, a speech to reignite this lackluster PM. What happened? Well, of course, an MP called Catherine West on the Saturday had declared she would stand against Keir Starmer and trigger a leadership contest. This set the cat amongst the pigeons. We had the speech then from Keir Starmer, which was meant to calm everything.

[00:02:58]>> And she said she'd listen to that speech, wouldn't she?

[00:02:59]>> 48 hours, we had the Labour equivalent of wait for Sue Gray. Because everyone who was sort of suggested that they might challenge Keir Starmer said, "I'll wait for the speech." Anyone that might have said Keir Starmer should go said, "I'll wait for the speech." And that worked as a holding strategy for about 24-48 hours for the Prime Minister. But of course, it backfired after that point because it then meant every MP worth their salt was being asked the question, "Well, what did you make of the speech?"

[00:03:27]And much like the genius marketing campaign from Marmite, that you love it or you hate it, it forced MPs into a binary position. Whereas a lot of MPs probably have fairly mixed feelings about Prime Minister, suddenly they were forced into this binary, should he stay or should he go? And one after another, MPs started to come out with statements, formal statements. Catherine West, of course, sent an email to all MPs saying that she had withdrawn her leadership challenge, but said to MPs instead that they should sign her petition to get Starmer out to to to ask for his resignation, a timetable to step down by September. And one by one, MPs started releasing their own statements, formal letterheaded paper scans in or photographed and posted online on their Twitter or or Facebook pages. And the momentum to build.

[00:04:23]One of the privileges about reporting from Downing Street is that when you finish your shift, there's a pub called the Red Lion Yeah. that exists just across >> I know very well. Yes. And after many of my shifts that week, I went across the Red Lion and started talking to um Labour back carriers, some Labour MPs, some cabinet ministers were even on that in that pub in a few days. And what I picked up from some figures within government was one of the things that most irked people about Keir Starmer in that particular speech was how he announced this idea of nationalizing British Steel. A lot of these people I was speaking to agreed with the idea of nationalizing British Steel, but they said he couldn't bring himself to say, "We're going to nationalize British Steel." Instead, he gave it a a sort of a an an extra addition to that phrase, "subject to a public interest test." And that to these people said just said everything that he needed to know like Keir Starmer, but he can't have a big vision without process. That he can't stand there and lead the country without referring to paperwork.

[00:05:29]>> technocratic. So, as Tom says there, names were coming in and by by the end of the week, we got maybe 100 I I count 97, but >> 97 Labour MPs. And the problem Catherine Catherine with that is that once you've said it, you can't unsay it. It's there, isn't it? Unless you can Well, then you might try and recant it, but it's difficult for him. So, as things stand, we've got 97 Labor MPs who want him to go. All in the backbenches, aren't they?

[00:05:53]And that's that's one in three of the backbenches.

[00:05:55]>> Yes, then there was a letter of a hundred or so that were in support of the Prime Minister. Although some of them said that they hadn't been consulted like Rupert for example. People start to take actually hang on a minute. How can I break my neck?

[00:06:08]But basically so that was Monday and then Monday night various cabinet ministers went into number 10 to see him and by Tuesday morning it was absolutely And their message was set a timetable.

[00:06:23]Not go, but set a timetable. Shabana Mahmood wasn't deniable, was it? That the Home Secretary was one of those who said it. Yeah, absolutely and and and one of those individuals who saw the Prime Minister.

[00:06:32]And yet these are all reports. None of them have confirmed this publicly. In fact, with Shabana Mahmood there've been many different reports about what she believes over the course of 35 days, some of which reported by some newspapers and then denied by her home office after the fact. Curious goings-on there.

[00:06:48]But of course we then got some of the lowest level of government resignations.

[00:06:54]Although perhaps before we get to the resignations, let's talk about the cabinet meeting because Catherine you were there on the streets as this as the MPs were going in, but then something interesting happened after the cabinet ministers finished that meeting. Yeah, it was absolutely extraordinary Tuesday.

[00:07:08]Well, I mean to be honest every day was mad, but Tuesday particularly. I was there at 5:30 in the morning. I think we were the first there, but very quickly there were dozens of journalists, TV presenters, political editors. When you're talking you probably heard if you heard me on Downing Street or Tom, you'll have heard other people talking at the same time in the background cuz we're lined up.

[00:07:28]And the thinking that morning was some of the cabinet have been in to tell him to go.

[00:07:34]Is is he going to be forced into resigning?

[00:07:37]Speculation was rife.

[00:07:40]But you know what?

[00:07:42]Um a human being. I've been there since 5:30. I was desperate for the loo and to get a hot drink. Well, coming out of this meeting, I went off and as I was looking >> Cuz you can't do it. You can't in the street. You have to be outside.

[00:07:55]Chaos erupts as MPs turn on Keir Starmer.

[00:08:00]Westminster is on fire, and this time the flames aren't coming from the opposition. They're coming from inside the house.

[00:08:08]Keir Starmer's own party is turning on him, and the scenes playing out behind the doors of number 10 are nothing short of extraordinary.

[00:08:17]Stay with us, because this week in British politics has been absolutely relentless.

[00:08:23]If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and ring the notification bell. It costs you nothing and means everything to this channel.

[00:08:30]Now, let's get into it.

[00:08:33]It started with a reset speech. A reset speech. That's what Keir Starmer's team apparently decided was the answer to months of sliding poll numbers, backbench fury, and a public that increasingly looks at this Labour government and sees not the change they voted for, but a continuation of managed decline dressed up in a slightly different suit.

[00:08:53]Starmer stood up, adjusted the tie, and attempted once again to convince the British people that he had a plan.

[00:09:00]What he got instead was a week that absolutely unraveled around him.

[00:09:05]Christopher Hope, joined by GB News Deputy Political Editor Tom Harwood and Chief Political Correspondent Katherine Forster, pulled back the curtain on just how bad things have become inside the Labour machine.

[00:09:17]And folks, the picture is not pretty.

[00:09:20]Because here's the thing about a reset speech. It only works if the people behind you believe in the reset. And mounting pressure from Labour MPs tells an entirely different story.

[00:09:31]Backbenchers who swept into Parliament on that enormous 2024 majority are now watching their surgeries fill up with constituents angry about the cost of living, furious about energy bills, and deeply unimpressed with a government that promised the earth and delivered a shrug.

[00:09:47]These MPs are not staying quiet. They are making noise, and that noise is getting louder by the day.

[00:09:54]Then there were the cabinet tensions, because nothing says strong leadership quite like a front bench that appears to be conducting a slow-motion audition for who gets to replace the man sitting at the top.

[00:10:05]The names circling in Westminster's corridors are hardly subtle. West Reading, ambitious, media-savvy, never quite hiding the fact that he believes he could do this job better.

[00:10:16]Angela Rayner, who has survived everything thrown at her, and remains one of the most formidable political operators in the building.

[00:10:24]And then there's Andy Burnham, looming large from Manchester. The perennial nearly man, who the labor faithful look at and wonder what if?

[00:10:37]What makes this week genuinely dramatic is that it isn't just background chatter anymore.

[00:10:43]Ministerial resignations have a way of crystallizing the chaos that briefings and unnamed sources can only hint at.

[00:10:51]When someone actually walks, when a minister decides that loyalty has its limits, it sends a message that no reset speech can paper over.

[00:11:00]Tom Harwood put it plainly.

[00:11:03]Catherine Forster laid out the facts with the precision of someone who has watched Westminster long enough to know when a government is wobbling versus when it is genuinely in trouble.

[00:11:13]And the consensus from this week's analysis was uncomfortable for anyone inside number 10.

[00:11:18]This is not just a bad week.

[00:11:21]This is a pattern.

[00:11:23]Keir Starmer came to power promising stability, promising competence, promising that the adults were back in the room.

[00:11:30]But what British voters are watching now is a prime minister who looks increasingly like a man trying to hold together a coalition that doesn't particularly want to be held together.

[00:11:40]The Labour Party is a broad church, and right now that church is having a very loud, very public theological dispute.

[00:11:49]Westminster has seen leadership crises before. It has seen prime ministers survive the unsurvivable.

[00:11:55]Whether Keir Starmer has the political instincts to navigate this moment, that is the question hanging over every briefing, every resignation, every whispered conversation in the division lobby this week.

[00:12:07]Stay tuned to UK Watch News.