Labour MPs quit in droves with 55 calling for Sir Keir Starmer to stand down

Wes Streeting’s ministerial aide has quit, seemingly firing a starting pistol on a leadership race to take over from Sir Keir Starmer.

Joe Morris and Tom Rutland, the ministerial aide to the Environment Secretary, both quit with the latter insisting he does not have faith in the prime minister to meet the challenge of Nigel Farage.

Around 55 Labour MPs and counting have publicly called for either Sir Keir Starmer to stand down or give a timetable for his departure since the disastrous local election results.

Mr Rutland wrote: ‘It is with regret that I believe the Prime Minister should now set out a timetable for his departure and for a new Leader to be chosen to lead the Labour Party and the country.

‘I watched brilliant councillors lose their seats last week through no fault of their own.’

Naushabah Khan, the MP for Gillingham and Rainham, said she was resigning as parliamentary private secretary to the Cabinet Office.

‘Our country faces unprecedented challenges’, she wrote in a post on X. The people of Gillingham & Rainham and the country deserve leadership that can deliver on scale. I did not enter politics to stand by while we fail.’

‘We need a clear change of direction now and no game playing. A Labour Government can and will rise to meet the moment if we act now.

‘I am calling for new leadership, so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for.’

In his big ‘unifying’ speech on Monday, the Labour leader admitted he had doubters in his own party as he pledged to put closer ties with the EU at the heart of his leadership ‘reset’.

Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors and was ousted from power in Wales, triggering widespread anger within the Labour ranks.

The Prime Minister said: ‘The election results last week were tough. Very tough.

‘That hurts and it should hurt. I get it. I feel it. I take responsibility.’

Turning to his own future, he vowed: ‘And I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again. Chaos that did lasting damage to this country.

‘A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again.’

But he also warned party faithful: ‘For the British people, tired of a status quo that has failed them, change cannot come fast enough.

‘Truth be told, I am not sure they believe that we care. I am not sure they believe that we see their lives.’

He also accused Nigel Farage of being ‘not just a grifter but a chancer’ following Reform UK’s staggering gains in the local elections, with more than 1,400 new councillors voted in.

The do-or-die speech failed to turn the tide of backbench Labour MPs turning on their leader.

Moderate backbencher David Smith said immediately after the address that he wanted the Prime Minister to lay out a timetable for leaving office.

Others backed him. David Pinto-Duschinsky, Labour MP for Hendon, told Sky News that the Prime Minister was ‘rising to the occasion’.