Starmer insists he won’t quit as PM, as former minister Catherine West seeks to trigger Labour leadership contest – UK politics live

Starmer insists he won’t quit as PM, as former minister Catherine West seeks to trigger Labour leadership contest Good morning. There were many predictions for Labour’s future ahead of the English, Scottish and Welsh elections, which have been terrible for the party, but there is one outcome foreseen by no one: a leadership challenge by Catherine West . West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a junior Foreign Office minister until she was sacked in the reshuffle last year, announced yesterday afternoon that, unless a cabinet minister comes forward to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership by tomorrow morning, she will do it herself. She would need the support of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a contest; there is no evidence that she has those numbers and (for reasons that are probably a mystery to anyone under the age of 50 – more on that later) she is being described as a stalking horse. While there may not be 81 Labour MPs who want to see West as party leader, there probably are many more than 81 who want to see Starmer replaced as leader befor the next election. Almost 40, by one count, have been going public since the elections on Thursday saying as much. But, in their comments, mostly they have been adopting the same line as St Augustine took on chastity; ‘Lord, give me a Labour leadership contest, but not yet.’ Why? Some of them have been saying Starmer should be given a chance to show that he can turn things round. …