A Salford MP has called for Sir Keir Starmer to “set out a timetable” for a new Prime Minister to be elected following the Labour Party’s disastrous local election results in the city and across the country.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has joined a growing list of 80 Labour MPs to call for Starmer to step down after his speech on Monday failed to convince critics that he remains the best person to lead the country forward.
The Prime Minister had emerged at the beginning of the week with a promise to prove his doubters wrong, as a former minister, Catherine West, withdrew threats to imminently launch a leadership challenge.
But his speech failed to quell demands that he quit or set out a timetable for his departure from discontented backbenchers and Ms West announced she was collecting signatures from MPs urging Sir Keir to stand aside by September.
Under Labour rules, a formal leadership contest would require support from 20 per cent of Labour MPs, equivalent to 81 MPs.
On Tuesday morning, Ms Long-Bailey added her name to the list of 80 Labour MPs calling on him to stand down.
In a message posted on social media, the Salford MP said: “Last week’s local election results were among the worst in our history. Hard-working Salford Labour Councillors lost their seats because of national decisions, and responsibility for that lies with Keir Starmer’s leadership.
“Many former Labour voters now feel our party is no longer on their side.
“Too many people now look at the party and see leaders more comfortable courting billionaires than standing shoulder to shoulder with working people.”
The Salford MP was at the count on local election night, watching many of her Labour colleagues suffer heavy defeats as the party haemorrhaged 13 seats, while right-wing nationalist party Reform UK gained 13.
She added: “They see a party terrified of upsetting the wealthy, while ordinary families are pushed to breaking point and people feel betrayed.
“They felt it when winter fuel support was cut. They felt it when we dragged our feet over scrapping the cruel two-child cap.
“They felt it when disabled people were once again made to feel like a burden instead of human beings deserving dignity. And people are rightly angry.
“That anger drove some toward Reform. Heartbreak for compassionate politics drove others toward the Greens. But underneath it all is the same cry: “Labour should be fighting for us.”
She said it is clear that the Prime Minister should take action to end the “chaos” by setting out a timetable for an orderly transition to a new leader.
“We need a calm, open contest that allows the party to debate what has gone wrong, how we win back trust, and the policies needed to transform people’s lives,” she said.
“That contest must allow the full range of candidates to stand, without exclusions or factional manoeuvring.
“We must stand for real Labour values once again. A party that demands unapologetically that ordinary people deserve better, that they deserve power over the forces that shape their lives.
“Not scraps. Not charity. Not managed decline dressed up as ‘fiscal responsibility,’ real power.”
Catherine West had previously said she would challenge Sir Keir for the party leadership as early as Monday afternoon, in an attempt to force the Cabinet to put forward a replacement as prime minister.
But after a speech in which Sir Keir said he would not “walk away”, the former Foreign Office minister said she would now canvass support within the party for the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his resignation by September, and she has since collected more than 80 signatures.
This morning, cabinet ministers came out of a meeting with the Prime Minister backing Sir Keir Starmer despite mounting calls for him to quit.
Four senior ministers spoke out in support of the beleaguered Labour leader after he told his gathered Cabinet he would continue governing.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, Business Secretary Peter Kyle, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden and Housing Secretary Steve Reed stood by the Labour leader as they spoke to reporters on Downing Street after the Cabinet meeting.
Ms Kendall said: “This Government will do what we were elected to do, which is serve the British people. The Prime Minister has my full support in this.
“Let me just say this, there is a process to challenge the leader, nobody has made that challenge and what people would expect me to do is to focus on how we can grow the economy, tackle the cost of living and give them a better life.”
Mr McFadden said nobody publicly challenged Sir Keir to go at the Cabinet meeting, Mr Kyle said Sir Keir was showing “really steadfast leadership,” and Mr Reed said the Prime Minister had his “full support”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as a possible successor, did not stop to speak to reporters.
While Starmer may have received backing today from his cabinet ministers, Long-Bailey’s message will add to the mounting pressure on him to resign, as she has been one of the most vocal critics of the government within the party.
The backbencher beaten by Sir Keir in the Labour leadership contest in 2020 was one of 15 Labour MPs to rebel against the government in favour of launching an investigation into the Prime Minister over his appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson in April.
That was not the first time the Salford MP had voted against the Labour authority. She was suspended from the Labour Party in July 2024 after voting against the government in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
She spent six months as an Independent before being readmitted into the parliamentary party in February 2025. Since then, Labour has walked back on its refusal to remove the two-child cap, lifting the limit in April.
In the early hours of Friday morning, a tired Ms Long-Bailey told Salford Now that the party’s heavy local election night defeats had made for a “soul-destroying.”
She added: “We’ve lost so many good councillors tonight, and this wasn’t on them.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been picking up on the doorstep for a long time now that people were losing faith nationally in the Labour Party, not locally in what the councillors were doing, but they felt that we weren’t being Labour.”
That night, Reform made inroads across the board, winning in Swinton & Wardley, Higher Irlam & Peel Green, Pendlebury & Clifton, Swinton Park, Claremont, Little Hulton, Pendleton & Charlestown, Cadishead & Lower Irlam, Weaste & Seedley, Walkden North and Walkden South from Labour and Worsley & Westwood Park from the Conservatives.
By Edward Hayton, with reporting from the Press Association
