Starmer clings on amid Labour deadlock | The Latest

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]If Labour messed this up, then the chances are we have a Nigel Farage government.

[00:00:04]>> I know that people are frustrated and some people frustrated with me.

[00:00:10]>> Kaba promised the gesture, but it wasn't holiday to the bald e9 bunch of roses from the garage down the road. For a lot of labor and peace, something needs to change. The question is what and when.

[00:00:21]>> I know I have my doubts and I know I need to prove them wrong and I will.

[00:00:26]>> It's very very hard to predict very fast moving. We're still in this deadlock really.

[00:00:32]>> Well, I'm joined by Peter Walker, our senior political correspondent. Thanks for dialing in from Westminster, Peter, on a very >> dramatic and fastm moving day and a very dramatic weekend.

[00:00:43]>> I mean, dramatic today up to a point in as much as Karma manages drama. But yes, >> yes, yes, that's a fair point. But nonetheless, Labour sort of mopping up the catastrophe of the loss of nearly 1500 seats last week in the local elections.

[00:00:58]>> An unexpected leadership challenge uh yesterday from Labour MP Katherine West and then a make orb breakak speech by the prime minister this morning in London to the public, but predominantly I think it's safe to say to his MPs effectively uh asking them not to sack him and to to give him a little more time. G give us a rundown of the state of play. We're talking at about half two on Monday.

[00:01:22]>> To an extent the state of play is largely where we were, you know, where we have been in the days since um the uh elections which weren't so bad for Labour on Thursday. There are a lot of Labour MPs who are very very very peeved with the way things are going. more than peeved really that they're incredibly worried um about this idea that the uh elections not just across English councils to an extent in Scotland but mainly in Wales were labored really really badly.

[00:01:49]>> Yeah. They think it shows that Kstarma is not turning things around that they're losing votes to reform on the right and the Greens on the left and they have this really kind of dreadful worry which Kama articulates in his speech to an extent that if Labour messes this up then the chances are we have a Nigel Farage government you know going into number 10 in in a couple of years time or you know maybe three years time >> and for a lot of Labor and peace that worries them enormously. So if you speak to almost any of them kind of privately they will say something needs to change.

[00:02:22]The question is what and when and to an extent we still are where we are that there's a smalish number of likely leadership contenders. So West Streeting the most obvious one Angela Raina perhaps Andy Burnham if you can get back into parliament but no one has as yet fired the starting gun. So you know we're still in this deadlock really. So for Kier Starma, I mean it was a I think safe to say a heartfelt speech, you know, with his sleeves rolled up. He spoke a lot about his family, his workingclass roots. He spoke about he took accountability for the losses of last week, full accountability and promise a sort of new direction of travel, but for Labour MPs that the sort of sense that we're getting is it wasn't quite enough to win back hearts and minds. What are you hearing? I mean it was it was a decent speech in terms of K star speeches it was a probably solid eight out of 10 >> but the sense I got from Labour MPs is that they just wanted something more they wanted something different it's kind of like I don't know like a marriage is on the rocks and one partner keeps on getting things wrong and the other one is saying God make a massive gesture and Kama promised a gesture but it wasn't holiday to the Maldes it was like a 399 bunch of roses from the garage down the road Well, I quite like supermarket flowers, but right as the anyone listening, that's Julie Julie noted.

[00:03:47]I I think I think it was not only the delivery that they wanted, but they wanted some more substance because what a lot of Labour MPs are increasingly realizing is that when reform win seats uh particularly in the kind of northern quote red wall uh areas and also in some of the London councils too because um Labour are losing votes not only to them but also to the Greens which is splitting the left vote. And what a lot of them want is I mean they understand the rationale for having a kind of >> reasonably robust uh immigration uh offer so reform don't hoover up every single >> small C conservative vote >> but they want some kind of offering to show to voters who might be tempted to go green you know look you can go with us and I think it would have probably had to be something big they're quite scuppered by the fact there's no money around but I mean I don't know I don't make the policies but it could have been a nod towards electoral reform or closer links with Europe. He did talk about Europe quite a lot >> and and interestingly said he thought Brexit had made the UK less secure and less rich.

[00:04:48]>> Yeah.

[00:04:49]>> Which is quite something >> which was a direct attack line against Nigel Farage who he said you know promised you the world when he campaigned for Brexit secured Brexit in no small part and it has failed the you know Britain as a as a nation. Um I just want to talk about this intervention from Katherine West which has been really interesting over the weekend. I think it's safe to say not a household name, but was uh on the front page of the Sunday newspapers yesterday with this direct leadership uh challenge. The first to put her head above the parapet.

[00:05:20]She's since in the wake of this speech said, you know, it was a good speech, but it's too little too late. She's rode back from her direct leadership challenge, >> but she set out a timetable of September for a sort of orderly transition which would require signatures of 81 MPs, 20% of the parliamentary labor party to back that where things stand there. How how much of a risk is Sama facing? I it's it's difficult to say because the one practical point to note is that even if she did have more than 81 MPs replying to this email she sent to all Labor MPs saying yes I do want him to set um a timetable that has no force. If you have 81 MPs saying that they're going to back you to challenge the for the leadership under Labor rules that does mean something but just saying we would like him to go at a certain point you know it doesn't force him to do anything. Yeah, >> it has the kind of effect of being a no confidence letter, but you'd probably need more than 80 MPs to do that. With West, it's quite interesting because no one expected that. She is, you know, a reasonably long-erving uh MP. She represents a North London constituency.

[00:06:28]I've been talking to people who know her and who who understand the rationale for what she did. And apparently she was sitting watching the results come in and she's a formal former council leader and she saw so many friends in North London councils just lose their seats and she's getting more and more angry and thinking surely someone's going to do something >> but then no one did and apparently she decided to just immediately act before everyone got back to Westminster. She was basically talked round from doing it. Right.

[00:06:56]>> But I think the reason that she's had this slight switch from being a direct leadership challenge to be this call for him to go at a certain time is it gives everyone a bit more time. And apparently her feeling is she doesn't want to have a leadership change which people feel they were pushed into which feels like a stitch up. Yeah. if it does take place, she wants it to happen in a kind of orderly way >> and and one that doesn't resemble the sort of Tory registered chaos of the 14 years where where prime ministers were so often toppled and that is something that Labor is very keen to avoid. But but interestingly, Starmmer in response to our own political editor Pippa Krera said he intends to fight any leadership challenge. So it's looking like regardless of what plays out, it could get very messy. In terms of the contenders, I mean, you outlined some of the the names that, you know, regularly circulate. Wes Streeting, Andy Bernham and Angela Raina. Ed Milliban's name is also being floated as as a perhaps a sort of temporary bridge leader.

[00:07:54]>> A stand Andy Burnham.

[00:07:56]>> Well, I'm sure he'd love that, Monica.

[00:07:59]But but what do we know? I mean, eyes are on West Streeting, right, whose leadership ambitions are are no secret.

[00:08:05]Um is there any sense that he is planning to move or does he agree with this idea that would be better if it was done in an orderly fashion uh closer to the autumn?

[00:08:16]>> There's a lot of people who believe he is going to move over the weekend. there were, you know, reasonably well informed people who were saying, "Look, he's going to do it. He's going on Monday.

[00:08:25]You know, it's all in train." But then when you put it to uh Streeting's allies and as we're obliged to call him, they were going, "No, absolutely not." And they point to the fact that Streeting after elections on Thursday did put out a supportive tweet or statement.

[00:08:41]I think the sense with him is that he still doesn't want to be the first person even though he might be.

[00:08:46]>> Yeah.

[00:08:47]>> But if someone else went for it, then he would. there is an incentive for him to go early in the sense of if he did wait until say September Andy Bernon might be back in the commons right and would probably have a better chance of winning over the Labor membership in a final vote but it's like this kind of whole game theory that a lot of what you do depends on what other people do and it's very very hard to predict very fast moving if I had to guess and this is I stress purely a guess >> I think he probably will do something in the coming weeks because It's perhaps unsustainable, particularly if the PM doesn't set a timetable, which he doesn't seem keen to do.

[00:09:24]>> Yeah.

[00:09:25]>> Um but then, you know, Angela Raina could equally do that as well.

[00:09:28]>> Yeah. And we've been hearing from Angela Raina in a pre-arranged speech, but nonetheless, she used that opportunity to address a number of the points that that Starmer raised in in his speech this morning. Um she over the weekend issued quite a punchy statement where she said, you know, she felt that the pace of change was not fast enough. She was uh clear about this message of giving a last chance warning to Starmer and she also said it was a mistake to prevent Andy Bernham from standing as an MP in Gordon and Denton. Where does she sit in all of this? I mean, she's still embroiled in her own tax affairs which uh put limitations on her ability to to put herself into the ring at the moment.

[00:10:09]But it she seems to be perhaps leaning towards Burnham in all of this. It's interesting because Angela Raina might decide that she suddenly needs to go for it. Um, you know, she's being talked up quite a lot as potentially a second fiddle in another leadership bid, whether it's Andy Burnham or Ed Milliband. But I get the sense that one thing she doesn't really like is being talked up as the supporting cast for a man's bid. So, you never know.

[00:10:33]>> Well, it sounds like Peter that Kama lives on another day, but it's going to be a tumultuous view. Maybe a day. Who knows exactly? But we will no doubt speak soon. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:10:44]>> I'm Ky Wright.

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