After disastrous week, some MPs predict challenge against PM likely if local and Welsh elections go badly next May
Keir Starmer has been warned that time is running out to repair his faltering leadership, with Labour MPs beginning to ask whether he could be challenged as prime minister.
After a disastrous week in which Angela Rayner resigned and Peter Mandelson was sacked as ambassador to Washington, a number of MPs said a challenge was likely if local and Welsh elections went badly next May. Some said the one thing now protecting Starmer was the lack of an agreed replacement.
“Personally, I think the clock is ticking,” one MP said. “It sometimes happens to people who are incredibly well meaning, but you can pass that tipping point and can’t recover.”
It came as Lucy Powell, who was sacked from the cabinet in the reshuffle after Rayner’s departure and who is standing to replace her as deputy leader, called for a “change of culture” in a Downing Street she described as overly factional and error-prone.
