Two East Lancashire Labour MPs call on Sir Keir Starmer to quit
Hyndburn’s Sarah Smith and her Pendle and Clitheroe backbench colleague Jonathan Hinder have told their leader it is time to go.
Two East Lancashire Labour MPs have called on Sir Keir Starmer to quit as Prime Minister.
Hyndburn’s Sarah Smith and her Pendle and Clitheroe backbench colleague Jonathan Hinder – both elected in the party’s 2024 general election landslide – have told their leader it is time to go.
Their interventions came as more than 80 Labour MPs publicly urged Sir Keir to resign immediately or draw up an exit timetable, and three junior ministers – Jess Phillips, Alex Davies-Jones and Miatta Fahnbulleh – became the first members of the government to resign over the disastrous results in elections for English councils and the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments.
He told his Cabinet yesterday he intended to fight on as more than 100 other MPs signed a statement backing him.
Mrs Smith first called on Sir Keir to go in a statement to the Lancashire Telegraph on Monday night, following Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Cllr Phil Riley saying he had to resign after Labour lost control of the borough for the first time in 15 years, and repeated her comments to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning.
Mr Hinder backed her, speaking to BBC Newsnight on Monday evening.
He said: “Well, it is happening, the Prime Minister is going. No Prime Minister can have this many MPs losing confidence in him. It is time to be real; he is going, no doubt about it.
“The speech this morning was, if I am being generous, tone deaf. At its worst, I would say it was downright insulting.
“You need to speak for the country, and you need to speak to the country, and I am sorry to say, I really am sorry to say, he cannot do that, so we need a new leader for the Labour Party, and more importantly, we need a new leader for the country.”
Mrs Smith said: “I do believe it is time that Keir outlined a plan for him to stand down in order for us to have new leadership.
“Colleagues are thinking this through very, very carefully and all of us want to do what is in the best interests of our constituents and our country.
“We are in an incredibly difficult fight against populist politics and we’ve got to set ourselves up in the best possible way to beat that and that’s certainly my priority.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that although Keir is an incredibly good man and has done huge things to get us to where we are today, he is incredibly unpopular on the doorstep.
“That’s not sustainable.”
Rossendale and Darwen Labour MP Andy MacNae said: “I’m not commenting right now.”
Blackburn’s Independent MP Adnan Hussain said: “After dire election results, including here in Blackburn, it’s clear this is about more than one man in Number 10.
“Labour is losing support in its traditional heartlands. I don’t think a swap of PM will do much to salvage the issue.
“So I think regardless of whether Starmer stays or goes, the party will continue in its current downward spiral.”
The Lancashire Telegraph has approached Burnley MP Oliver Ryan and his Ribble Valley Labour colleague Maya Ellis for comment.
In his Lancashire Telegraph column this week, Mr Ryan said: “These local elections are a big wake-up call for my party, for Labour.
“People are shouting at us to listen – on the boats crisis, the cost of living, the NHS, safety, housing, fairness, class, and much more. We cannot ignore that.”