Keir’s defences: Has the dam broken?
5/10/202627 min
Is anyone really prepared to put their head above the parapet to challenge Keir Starmer?
After a disastrous set of election results, Labour backbencher Catherine West has launched a stalking-horse threat to force the Prime Minister out.
But, with rival camps in disarray and would-be successors staying silent, will the cabinet unite around a successor or fracture even further?
In this special debrief edition of Politics at Sam and Anne’s, the duo reveal who’s talking to who and whether Labour can stop the chaos before it spirals out of control.
Elsewhere, as the SNP and Plaid Cymru look likely to lead the devolved administrations will the state of the union be put into further question.
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First 90 secondsAnne McElvoy· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, good morning and welcome to our special Sunday edition of Politics at Sam and Ann's. This morning, Labor is tearing itself apart in public over Keir Starmer's future, holding its breath for the PM's big recovery speech tomorrow. Can one moment, one speech really turn it around? My name is Anne McElvoy from Politico.
Sam Coates· Host0:28
And I'm Sam Coates of Sky News. Keir Starmer will face a leadership challenge tomorrow morning from a little-known backbencher, unless the cabinet lock themselves in a room in the next day or so to work out a successor. That's the challenge from Catherine West, the Australian-born North London MP who came out of the blocks yesterday to announce she, if nobody else, would challenge the PM. At the time of speaking, the cabinet en masse is saying, "No, we won't meet today," although they're talking, uh, behind the scenes in, in small groups, as still nobody at Labor's top table appears willing to put their head above the parapet and say what a lot of other people in Labor are saying, and the Prime Minister must go. But they're talking, and they don't know what's gonna happen next, and increasingly they're telling me they think there is a good chance this whole thing could spiral into chaos within days.
Anne McElvoy· Host1:19
After two dozen Labor MPs called for Keir Starmer to set out a timetable to go in the aftermath of Thursday's elections disaster, West, the MP for Hornsey