Labour MP Catherine West has urged the Cabinet to unite behind a new leader to take the fight to Nigel Farage and Reform UK, following what she described as an 'electoral crisis' for her party. Speaking in North London on Saturday, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet called for a collective decision rather than a leadership election.
West's call for unity
Ms West stated: 'What I’d really like to see is not a leadership election, but for them to come together and appoint somebody amongst them who can lead us and give us a vision of how we’re going to defeat Nigel Farage and the right wing in the coming general election, which could be as soon as possible.' She believes the Cabinet should lock itself in a room to devise a plan to save Labour after poor election results.
Leadership challenge prospects
For Ms West to challenge Sir Keir Starmer, she would need the backing of 20% of Labour’s 403 MPs, a total of 81. She expressed confidence in achieving this by calling on colleagues on Monday. The call for change follows Labour losing control of several councils and many MPs demanding Sir Keir's departure.
Andy Burnham's potential role
When asked if her challenge aimed to prevent Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from stepping in, Ms West denied this, saying: 'Not at all. I think Andy should be part of the leadership team, and I would expect that any leader will want to appoint Andy, perhaps, to the House of Lords, because you could be a minister in the House of Lords, and he would make a fantastic contribution.' She acknowledged that having a prime minister from the Lords would be unusual.
Reaction to election results
In an attempt to salvage support, Sir Keir gave advisory roles to Labour grandees Gordon Brown and Baroness Harriet Harman on Saturday. However, Ms West criticised the Cabinet for not providing strong leadership, describing the election outcome as the worst she can remember since entering public life in 2001.
She said: 'This is what we would describe as an electoral emergency and sadly, the Cabinet have not come out strongly to lead us, to tell us what’s coming next.' Ms West plans to intensify her challenge on Sunday and Monday, hoping to prompt either a more combative stance from the current leader or the emergence of new leadership hopefuls.
Understanding Reform UK's success
Ms West attributed Reform UK’s success in local elections to their ability to communicate with working people, a traditional role of the Labour Party. She argued: 'The only way of beating Reform is for the Labour Party to get itself organised, better funded, we need to do more fundraising, because Nigel Farage clearly has people who will just give him £5 million. We need to understand where that money came from, we need to understand how they operate. And also, we need to look at their methods of communication.'
