The Huffington Post
Will Keir Starmer soon be leaving 10 Downing Street for good? A full-blown civil war has erupted in the Labour Party after another former minister called on Keir Starmer to quit as prime minister. Josh Simons triggered an angry backlash by urging the PM to set out a timetable for his departure to allow “an orderly transition” to a new leader. His intervention is hugely significant because he used to run Labour Together, the moderate think-tank which helped Starmer become party leader in 2020. One minister told HuffPost UK: “This sort of behaviour is why Josh is widely disliked and mistrusted by every part of the Labour Party, which is some achievement from somebody who has been an MP for 20 months.” Simons, who was forced to resign as a Cabinet Office minister in February over his part in a Labour Together smear operation against journalists, said Starmer had “lost the country” and needed to go. Writing in The Times, he said: “He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister. “What happens next is not a horse race, it’s about the future of our party and our country. Over the coming months, how the Labour Party conducts itself matters. “To avoid leadership chaos, senior figures across factions should come together to decide the best way forward. The public expects nothing less.” Simons added: “The alternative risks handing Farage the keys to Downing Street and giving up on working class people. I could not look my children in the eye without doing my bit to stop that.” A government source said: “This is a desperate attempt at an epilogue by Josh for a political career that has already ended in disgrace, less than two years in. This is more likely to push Labour MPs away from the edge.” But a Labour MP hit back: “Josh is right. The No.10 briefing operation against him is a pretty ham-fisted attempt at intimidating other colleagues.” Simons is one of around 40 Labour MPs who have broken cover since Thursday’s elections to call on Starmer to stand down. His intervention came after former Foreign Office minister Catherine West said she would trigger a leadership election unless the cabinet agrees a candidate to replace the PM. West this morning she would wait until the PM delivers a make-or-break speech on Monday before trying to get the 81 nominations she would need to kick-start a contest. She told the BBC: “What we need is ... an orderly transition into a leadership election, which will allow us to make the case to the country, as well as to our colleagues, so that we can go forward.” Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and health secretary Wes Streeting are expected to throw their hats into the ring should a contest be announced, and would also need to get the backing of 81 MPs each. Starmer has insisted he “won’t walk away” from Downing Street, and under Labour Party rules his name would automatically go on the ballot paper. However, left-wing supporters of Andy Burnham have hit out at West as he is not currently an MP and therefore would be unable to take part in a leadership election which takes place imminently. They fear that would play into the hands of Streeting, who is on the right of the Labour Party. Leeds East MP Richard Burgon said: “Catherine says that if there isn’t a cabinet deal, she will trigger an immediate leadership election. “I fear there’s a real danger that, whatever her good intentions, her move will be exploited by people on the right of the party who want a coronation and not a proper democratic contest in the party. “It may even be that those people help secure the 81 nominations needed to kickstart any leadership race. “What we need instead is for Keir to set a date for his departure, followed by a full and proper democratic contest that can look at what went wrong and how we change course to win back trust and support, with a broad range of candidates and viewpoints represented.” Education secretary Bridget Phillipson rejected the calls for Starmer to quit, and insisted he will lead Labour into the next election. She said: “The prime minister will set out a fresh direction for our country and for our party that will rise to the scale of what we face. “But we have to be honest about the scale of what we face. I share the impatience that people feel about how, nearly two years on, people want to see more. I get that, I’m not going to step back from that. “But I also have to level with people about the enormity of the decades-long challenges that some of this comes back to, the status quo won’t cut it.” Subscribe to Commons People , the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster. Related... 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