West vows to seek to trigger Labour leadership contest
Labour MP Catherine West said she will seek to trigger a leadership contest if a cabinet minister does not launch a challenge to the prime minister by Monday.
West, previously a junior Foreign Office minister, said that if no leadership hopeful makes it known that the cabinet will seek to remove Keir Starmer, she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest.
The MP for or Hornsey and Friern Barnet told the BBC’s PM programme: “I’m putting people on notice – if I don’t hear by Monday morning of some leadership hopefuls, I will be asking everybody in the Parliamentary Labour Party to put a name against my name, because we need to get this ball rolling.
“But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role, and then for others to come to the fore, who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”
Key events
Greens win control of their third London council
The Greens have toppled a huge Labour majority in Lewisham to take control of their third London council.
The party won a majority by winning 30 of the first 39 results to be announced, with Labour taking just nine.
The successful Green candidates included Liam Shrivastava in Crofton Park Ward, although he will give up his council seat after winning the Lewisham mayoral election on Friday.
Labour had 50 seats on the previous council and the Greens only four, and Lewisham became the 12th London council where Sir Keir Starmer’s party lost control, with Hackney and Waltham Forest also being taken by the Greens.
The Conservatives won Westminster, while Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark and Wandsworth all slipped into no overall control.
Josh Halliday
One of Labour’s most powerful figures outside Westminster, the West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, has warned the government it faces “oblivion” at the next general election without a renewed “boldness” from ministers.
Brabin described the local election losses as “catastrophic” after Labour lost overall control of several councils in her region to a Reform UK surge, including Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees. Labour had led many of these authorities for decades.
Brabin stopped short of calling for Keir Starmer to stand aside but said:
“This is a catastrophic set of results for the Labour Party. Here in West Yorkshire, and across the country, we’ve lost dedicated councillors who have served their communities tirelessly without self interest.”
“I’m proud to have worked with many of them over the last five years to deliver better transport, new homes and more jobs for the people we represent.
“I remain committed to building a stronger region, and will work with the newly elected leaders of our councils to deliver for people and communities across West Yorkshire.
“Two years on from a landslide general election victory, the Labour party is facing oblivion if these results are repeated. We cannot waste the opportunity of Labour being in government.”
A summary of today’s developments
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Labour MP Catherine West said she will seek to trigger a leadership contest if a cabinet minister does not launch a challenge to the prime minister by Monday. West, previously a junior Foreign Office minister, said that if no leadership hopeful makes it known that the cabinet will seek to remove Keir Starmer, she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest.
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Welsh Labour has announced Ken Skates will serve as its interim leader. Eluned Morgan resigned from the role yesterday after losing her seat in the Senedd. Skates will serve as leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election, the party said.
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Labour has lost control of Bradford council to continue the bad news for the party in Yorkshire. Reform UK cannot take control but were expected to be the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 seats to be declared, with Conservatives on 18 and Labour on 15.
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Labour has lost control of Lambeth council, pushing the party out of power in the London borough for the first time since 2006. Labour won 26 of the 63 seats in the face of a Green party surge. The Greens won 29 seats, becoming the largest party, with Liberal Democrats on eight.
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The majority of Labour members say they do not believe Keir Starmer can turn around the party’s fortunes, while 45% say the prime minister should step down. Andy Burnham, was the first preference for 42% of members, who were asked to rank their preferred successor. Several Labour MPs – especially those who are close to Burnham – told the Guardian they would like to see a timetable for Starmer to stand down in an orderly and dignified way, including allowing the mayor of Manchester time to seek a parliamentary seat.
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MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week.
MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week, writes Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot.
Following grim results for Labour in elections on Thursday, former minister Catherine West said that if no cabinet ministers went public by Monday, she would launch a bid to end the impasse.
It comes after a series of Labour backbenchers called on Saturday for Starmer to set a timetable for his departure from Downing Street. The prime minister has reiterated his determination to stay on, saying on Saturday that a change of leadership would “plunge the country into chaos”.
A number of Labour MPs from across the party support Andy Burnham replacing Starmer. However, the Greater Manchester mayor requires a time-consuming and uncertain byelection to re-enter parliament.
There has been speculation that Wes Streeting might be considering a move next week, although this has been vehemently denied by the health secretary’s allies, who point to his public support for the PM on Friday.
With any route for Burnham back to the commons still unclear, dozens of backbenchers from the party’s left are now preparing to turn to Miliband. The group is expected to urge the energy secretary to step in and prevent a Streeting coronation, believing that Angela Rayner, Starmer’s former deputy, does not have the necessary support.
MPs were weighing their options a day after Labour’s disastrous election results, with some backbenchers adding their voices to calls for the prime minister to go. But matters began moving at speed, with West, a north London MP who was sacked by Starmer as a Foreign Office minister last year, telling the BBC that in the event of no other challengers, she would ask colleagues on Monday to back her as a way of starting a contest.
Labour MP Catherine Atkinson told Sky News her fellow MP Catherine West is “on a different page than the majority of Labour MPs” after the latter vowed to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if no cabinet minister launches a bid to oust the PM by Monday.
And Preet Kaur Gill MP, a Parliamentary Private Secretary to a cabinet minister, has also weighed in on West’s ultimatum.
She wrote on X: “With respect to Catherine West, leadership contests and public ultimatums are not what the country needs right now.
“The public expects government to govern, not endless internal theatrics.
“The priority should be getting on with the job the British people elected Labour to do.”
Aspire wins Tower Hamlets council election
Aspire has won the Tower Hamlets council election to secure an overall majority in the only London borough where it stands.
The party secured 23 of the first 31 seats to be declared in east London, enough to take back control.
Aspire won 24 seats in the last council election in 2022, but later lost two to defections.
Labour has won four seats, the Greens two and the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives one each.
Aspire leader Lutfur Rahman was re-elected as Tower Hamlets mayor on Friday with almost 39% of the votes.
Reform UK Scotland’s new MSPs have elected the party’s leader and deputy leader.
The party’s Holyrood group confirmed Thomas Kerr as its deputy while backing Lord Malcolm Offord, who had already been appointed leader by Nigel Farage, for the top spot.
Kerr is a former Tory councillor who defected to Reform last year and on Friday was confirmed as one of the party’s 17 MSPs at Holyrood.
Jamie Grierson
Welsh Labour sources expect newly appointed interim leader Ken Skates to launch an internal review into the party’s catastrophic loss in the Senedd elections.
The Guardian has been told blaming others for the defeat is not “realistic” considering the scale of the defeat.
A senior Welsh Labour source told the Guardian: “It’s been catastrophic. That’s what Eluned [Morgan] said in her concession speech and it’s true. It’s going to take time for the party to come to terms with the fact that over a century of Labour rule in Wales has ended. And we can’t shy away from that fact.
“There are some who are trying to steer the blame here and there, but that’s just not realistic for the scale of the ground we’ve lost. Voters have sent us a message and we need to be serious about rebuilding their trust. If we don’t take that seriously then we’re lost. We have to look closely at what we’ve been doing in Wales and the polices we’ve been implementing and find the root of the disconnect. This was an election about Wales and Welsh voters didn’t support us.
“We lost the confidence of voters as the progressive anti-Reform vote. We heard people on the doors saying they’d usually vote Labour but wanted to stop Reform. Every vote counted and our votes went elsewhere. We need to attract voters back to Labour and that won’t happen overnight.
“Now we have to face the next four years of being the third party in Wales. That will take some adjustment. We will hold Plaid to account on the many promises they made and stand by the concerns we raised during the campaign over affordability and delivery.
“With a new interim leader appointed we’ll do what we can to start looking at what went wrong and how we can reconnect with the communities our movement was born in. That won’t be easy, but it needs to be our priority. We know Ken Skates is committed to an internal review including speaking with the wider party including candidates, councillors, MPs, MSs, the trade unions and most importantly the electorate.
“We faced a challenging environment of an incumbent party in both Wales and Westminster as well as at council level. Voters raised serious issues about NHS access, roads, local services, cost of living and trust in politics. UK Labour, Welsh Labour’s record in government and local delivery pressures all played a part in the decisions voters made. We need to understand these pressures and make sure any future Welsh offer feels like practical change.”
West vows to seek to trigger Labour leadership contest
Labour MP Catherine West said she will seek to trigger a leadership contest if a cabinet minister does not launch a challenge to the prime minister by Monday.
West, previously a junior Foreign Office minister, said that if no leadership hopeful makes it known that the cabinet will seek to remove Keir Starmer, she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest.
The MP for or Hornsey and Friern Barnet told the BBC’s PM programme: “I’m putting people on notice – if I don’t hear by Monday morning of some leadership hopefuls, I will be asking everybody in the Parliamentary Labour Party to put a name against my name, because we need to get this ball rolling.
“But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role, and then for others to come to the fore, who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”
Croydon has remained under no overall control after both Labour and Conservatives failed to win the south London borough.
Labour won 30 seats and Conservatives 27, both short of the 36 needed for a majority.
Labour came into the election with 34 seats and Conservatives on 33, but the Greens made gains and ended with eight, while two Reform UK and two Liberal Democrat candidates were elected.
Labour loses control of Bradford council
Labour has lost control of Bradford council to continue the bad news for the party in Yorkshire.
Reform UK cannot take control but were expected to be the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 seats to be declared, with Conservatives on 18 and Labour on 15.
Reform UK ended more than 50 years of Labour rule in Barnsley and also took Calderdale and Wakefield from Labour, which also lost control of Leeds.
Keir Starmer has thanked Ken Skates for “stepping up” as interim Labour leader in Wales.
The PM said a period of “necessary reflection and rebuilding” was required after the disastrous elections for Labour which saw First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan lose her seat.
Starmer said: “Thank you to Ken Skates for stepping up to provide leadership for Labour in Wales and the Senedd as we begin a period of necessary reflection and rebuilding.
“Ken is a talented and experienced MS, and I know he will do a fantastic job bringing Welsh Labour together and holding the new government to account for working people.”
Starmer is facing increasing pressure to set a date for his departure after elections across much of the country resulted in massive losses for his ruling Labour party.
With the bulk of results now counted after voting on Thursday, Labour had lost more than 1,400 representatives from English councils, the local government structures that deliver many neighbourhood services.
Richard Adams
More potentially bad news for the government: the National Education Union, the largest teaching union in England,isto hold a formal strike ballot later this year over pay and school funding.
The NEU’s national executive on Saturday voted to go ahead with the ballot over fears that teachers’ pay in England’s state schoolswill not keepupwith inflation. But theunion opted to delay opening the strike ballot until autumn after the start of the next school year.
Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary, said: “The cracks in our education system are obvious to all. Schools are running on empty. Pay and workload issues are driving many out of the profession, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis that is directly impacting on the education of our children and young people.
“No member wants to be taking strike action. To avoid this collision course the government needs to step up and deliver the properly funded education system our children and young people deserve. It is time to save education.”
Here is a map showing the election results in Wales, where Plaid Cymru has won the most seats in the Senedd but is short of a majority:
Labour loses control of Lambeth council
Labour has lost control of Lambeth council, pushing the party out of power in the London borough for the first time since 2006, PA reports.
Labour won 26 of the 63 seats in the face of a Green party surge.
The Greens won 29 seats, becoming the largest party, with Liberal Democrats on eight.
The result means Lambeth is the eighth London council previously run by Labour moving to no overall control.
The Greens previously had just four seats in Lambeth, with Labour on 54.
Bethan McKernan
On Ken Skates becoming interim Welsh Labour leader, the secretary of state for Wales, Jo Stevens, said:
Ken has the determination, experience, and values to lead our party in Wales as we learn from this result. We’ve already worked together to deliver for the people of Wales, including on the UK Labour Government’s transformational £14bn plan for rail. There’s much more to do. I look forward to rebuilding the Welsh Labour party with him and our new Senedd Group, for the future Wales deserves.
Analysis: SNP may have won again but Scottish politics has been upended
This had been the most unpredictable Scottish election for more than a decade, with a record number of undecided voters, and one defined by public apathy and frustration, writes Libby Brooks and Severin Carrell.
Long before the final votes were counted in Scotland, veteran Labour politicians said it was a defeat made in Downing Street.
When the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, strode into the Glasgow count arena on Friday afternoon flanked by sombre-faced activists, the scene was a mirror image to the same venue in 2024, when his resurgent party won 36 seats from the Scottish National party, playing a significant part in Keir Starmer’s landslide victory.
Two years later, Starmer’s unpopularity proved an insurmountable obstacle for Sarwar, despite record donations to Scottish Labour and a formidable electoral machine, honed over the past five years. And with only a handful of constituencies declared, he decided to concede defeat before the real scale of Labour losses across the country was known.
More than 12 hours later, when the final regional results were declared after 1am, it was clear that Holyrood politics had been upended. Scottish Labour had tied in second place behind the SNP with Reform UK, the party that previously attacked Sarwar’s loyalty to Scotland in a racist ad. And a party that the SNP leader, John Swinney, has described as an acute threat to devolution.
Read more here:
The Press Association has reported the first election result today, in Barnsley, where there were multiple recounts in the Penistone West ward.
After four separate counts in that ward, Reform has won control of the traditional Labour stronghold in South Yorkshire with 42 seats.
Labour came second with 11 seats – losing 35 – followed by Liberal Democrats with eight and independents with two.
Welsh Labour announces interim leader
Jamie Grierson
Welsh Labour has announced Ken Skates will serve as its interim leader.
Eluned Morgan resigned from the role yesterday after losing her seat in the Senedd.
Skates will serve as leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election, the party said.
“Today is just the beginning of a process that will help us to understand what we got wrong. Because we did get it wrong,” Skates said.
“There is no reading of this result that endorses every action we have taken as a party and our task now is to take the time needed and to work out what has happened.
“It is a task that will require every single one of us to take part in – every member, every councillor, every MS, MP, Lord and all roles in between.
“But it is not a task that is beyond us.”
Skates, first elected in 2011, has held several Welsh government roles including transport secretary and economy and infrastructure secretary. He was re-elected to the Senedd for Fflint Wrecsam yesterday.
