Have your say on when Sir Keir will be forced out.
Starmer has been warned he has just months left in the job (Image: Getty)
Briefings against the Prime Minister continue to swirl this morning, as Downing Street was left in chaos following a trio of high-level resignations. Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson and director of political strategy Paul Ovenden have all be forced out in the past fortnight, leaving Sir Keir Starmer on the brink.
This morning one minister even suggested that the Prime Minister “won’t last until Christmas”. Plenty of other MPs, both anonymously and on the record, have emerged to earmark next May’s local elections as the crunch point for Keir Starmer. Many fear that the Labour Party will be left in pieces after the elections, which could see the party lose power in Wales for the first time since 1999, pushed into third place in Scotland, and lose thousands of councillors.
Unlike this year’s local elections, which were in largely rural Tory-held areas, next May will see Labour forced to defence dozens of urban councils including 16 London boroughs, and cities like Birmingham, Gateshead, Sunderland, Wakefield, Manchester, Wigan and Wolverhampton.
This would give Sir Keir just eight months to turn his sinking ship around.
Left-winger Richard Burgon said the Prime Minister “will be gone” if the next set of locals are as bad as feared.
He told the Today Programme: “Lots of MPs are looking to the elections next May.
“The opinion polls suggest it’s going to be a complete disaster unfortunately and there’ll be elections in the Scottish Parliament, elections in the Welsh Senedd, elections in London, elections right across the country and the opinion polls at the moment suggest that as it stands it’s going be a disaster.
Starmer has been left reeling over Mandelson (Image: Getty)
“I think it’s inevitable if May’s elections go as people predict and the opinion polls predict then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.”
Other Labour MPs have joined him in setting up next May as a crisis point for the Prime Minister, including former deputy leadership candidate Rosena Allin-Khan, who said that while Sir Keir has a “huge mandate” he needs to be allowed to “see this out and be judged in May”.
Fellow Labour MP Helen Hayes added: “If those elections don’t go well, then that will be the time to ask questions… about the nature of the leadership and whether things can continue as they are.”
Graham Stringer MP warned on Sunday that the PM is “supping in the last chance saloon”.
