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Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, has put further pressure on Keir Starmer effectively putting him on notice to quit unless there is “significant and urgent change”.
Speaking to ITV Calendar, Haigh qualified her expression of support for the Prime Minister with a warning that he may not be the right person to lead Labour into the next election as the governing party was on course to suffer major losses nationwide.
“He is doing an incredible job at the moment on the international stage in the middle of global instability and a war. And it is imperative that he is successful in that role because our constituents’ livelihoods are dependent upon it,” the Sheffield Heeley MP said.
“But I think what is abundantly clear is that unless the government delivers significant and urgent change, then the Prime Minister cannot lead us into another election.”
Haigh later confirmed to PoliticsHome that “another election” refers to the next set of local elections in May 2027 rather than the next general election.
As a leading figure on the party’s soft left, Haigh is one of the most senior Labour figures to suggest that Starmer should resign before the next general election.
Another senior Labour MP, Sarah Owen, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, issued a similar warning, telling The Times: “Unless Keir Starmer delivers tangible change and truly connects with the public on a human level, he can’t lead us into another election (locally or nationally).
“People want politics and politicians who are upfront and true to their values.”
Speaking earlier in the day, the PM admitted that the local election results were “very tough” but insisted that he was “not going to walk away”.
“Tough days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve,” he told reporters.
Labour has lost hundreds of council seats nationwide at the time of writing.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has enjoyed major gains in the North and the Midlands in particular, inflicting major damage to Labour in places like Hartlepool, Tameside and Wigan.
Labour’s vote is also being eaten into by the Greens from the left, with Zack Polanski’s party expected to make significant gains in London when results are announced in the coming hours. Earlier today, Zoë Garbett unseated Labour in the borough of Hackney to become the country’s first Green mayor.
MPs on the Labour left, including Ian Lavery, Nadia Whittome and Apsana Begum, have publicly called on Starmer to set out a resignation plan in response to Labour’s losses.
Theo Bertram, who was a Downing Street adviser to former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, wrote in The House that the PM has lacked a clear sense of purpose since being elected in 2024, describing his approach as “tepid managerialism”: “Too often, Starmer has articulated constraint but not purpose, sounding managerial not transformational.”
