Starmer latest: PM faces Labour leadership ultimatum as union boss warns party ‘in danger of going extinct’

A former minister and Starmer ally has become the latest Labour MP to call for the prime minister to resign.

Josh Simons, who was as Cabinet Office minister until a few weeks ago, declared Sir Keir has “lost the country” as he called on him to set out a timetable for his departure from No 10.

“This is bigger than any one person. All of us must be honest about these challenges, including those vying to replace the prime minister. We need radicalism, energy, and immense courage,” he wrote in the Sunday Times.

“Putting the people I represent and the country I love first, I do not believe the prime minister can rise to this moment. He has lost the country. He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister.”

Mr Simons was forced to resign in March amid a probe into claims a Labour think tank he once ran paid for an investigation to “smear” journalists.

Bridget Phillipson has admitted the government has not “told a strong enough story” to garner support after almost two years in government.

The education minister said there must be a “collective endeavour” to make sure the Labour Party is “telling a better story” after this week’s disastrous election results.

She told the BBC: “Have we told a strong enough story about who we are and what we’re about and what this Labour Party is delivering? No, we haven’t.”

She insisted Sir Keir Starmer “knows that” and said it is a “perilous moment for our country”.

Labour MP Catherine West has told education secretary Bridget Phillipson to challenge the prime minister.

The boss of one of Labour’s biggest union backers has warned the party is at risk of “going extinct” if it does not change direction.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the party has “abandoned the working class, and the working class have now abandoned Labour”.

Warning Labour must take “a completely different economic direction and political direction”, she told the BBC: “I actually think we’re in a situation here where they could be extinct. There’s no God given right for Labour to exist.

“They are either there to defend workers and communities, that’s what they were put there to do, or they’re not. And if they don’t do that, there are serious problems ahead for the entirety of the Labour movement.”

The Labour MP who has issued an ultimatum for the cabinet to oust Sir Keir Starmer has warned the party has to “move quickly” after this week’s disastrous election results.

Catherine West said she will “hear what the prime minister has got to say tomorrow” before she decides whether to seek official support to launch a leadership bid.

She said: “The reason I am doing that is not for me, it’s for working people. Because Labour is the only party that can beat Reform.”

She said that she wants the government to “reflect on the result from Thursday, where the voters sent us a very strong message that we are not good enough”.

She told the BBC: “We have a problem and need to move quickly.”

The Labour MP who has issued an ultimatum on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has told a cabinet minister directly to challenge the prime minister.

Catherine West has called on the cabinet to put a candidate forward to replace Sir Keir by Monday, or else she would launch her own bid.

Speaking directly to Bridget Phillipson on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said: “There’s nothing stopping Bridget from standing.

“Why are the all the men better than the women? We do need some senior women to step forward and to challenge for what is going to be really difficult two and a half years between now and the general election, and also to take us into that second term.”

The education secretary replied: “I love you dearly, Catherine, but I just disagree on this one.”

Bridget Phillipson has stood firm on her support for Sir Keir Starmer lead Labour into the next general election, despite the party having suffered brutal defeats across the country this week.

The education secretary was asked whether the prime minister will lead the party into the next general elections, and whether that is something she would want. She told Sky News: “Yes on both counts.”

She was also asked about the prospect of a cabinet reshuffle, which has been rumoured in recent days.

“I’m not aware that there will be a reshuffle, but those are, of course, matters for the prime minister,” she said.

Bridget Phillipson has been asked what she thinks the government’s biggest mistakes have been so far.

The education secretary gave a surprisingly direct answer, telling Sky News that changes to the winter fuel allowance “caused us real damage early on”.

She went on to say that the government had been “too gloomy and too negative early on”, which she said “embedded a sense of gloom”.

“People knew the country was in a mess,” she said. “They didn’t need us to remind them in such detail that the country was in a mess… They wanted us to focus on what we as a government were going to deliver.”

Education minister Bridget Phillipson has said she felt “sick to the bottom of [her] stomach” after seeing the scale of Labour’s electoral defeat this week.

Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign over the defeat, which saw the party lose control of swathes of historical strongholds.

Speaking about Catherine West’s leadership ultimatum, Ms Phillipson said: “Catherine, like lots of other colleagues and like lots of candidates who stood in the elections that we’ve just had, are really hurting this morning.

“And I feel that. Friday morning, I felt absolutely sick to the bottom of my stomach about the scale of the defeat that we’d suffered. And we got a real kicking, from the voters. There’s there’s no escaping that. And we have to seriously reflect on that.”

Bridget Phillipson has claimed Sir Keir Starmer “didn’t come up” as much as “people might imagine” while speaking to voters on the doorstep.

The education secretary described a difficult conversation she had with a voter ahead of the election on Thursday, but said Starmer’s leadership didn’t come up.

Asked if this was true, she told Sky News: “Genuinely, sincerely, no.”Now, I’m not saying that Keir Starmer’s leadership did never come up, but actually not as much as people might imagine.

“What did come up, what did come up a lot was policing, GP appointments, why aren’t waiting lists coming down faster?”