Is Starmer's leadership under serious threat?

"For a challenge to get off the ground, 20% of Labour MPs, 81 people, have to back it. West says she currently has 10 supporters and so is a long way short of that. Some MPs have told us she has no chance of getting the MPs she would need. An MP on the right of the party suggested that she might be inadvertently helpful to the PM. If she can't get enough supporters Sir Keir could then declare that there was no appetite for a contest and move on."

"Downing Street are trying to ignore West's challenge and various leadership camps are denying that they had anything to do with it. But "it might just break the impasse," said another MP, by giving others a vehicle to express their view that the leadership needs to change. For a challenge to get off the ground, 20% of Labour MPs, 81 people, have to back it."

"The former minister Catherine West's interview with Radio 4's PM programme immediately raised eyebrows around Westminster. Plenty of Labour MPs from across the party have told us they didn't see it coming. "What the hell is going on?" said one figure on the Left. "Crikey," said another. Equally succinctly, a former frontbencher declared West's intervention to be "bonkers"."

"They characterised her intervention as an expression of exasperation and frustration. "It is a howl of pain," said one minister, reflecting that so many people in the Labour Party this weekend are hurting. "Many have lost their social circle in their patch. Dear friends, who have worked incredibly hard as councillors, who have been thrown out and it's not their fault," one MP said."

Catherine West’s interview on PM raised surprise among Labour MPs and prompted strong reactions across the party. Some MPs described her intervention as exasperation and pain, while others called it “bonkers.” Downing Street sought to ignore the challenge, and leadership camps denied involvement. MPs said the move could break an impasse by giving others a vehicle to argue that leadership should change. A leadership challenge requires 20% of Labour MPs, 81 people, to support it. West said she has 10 supporters, far short of the threshold, and some MPs believe she cannot reach enough backing. Others think she could still cross the required level, which would intensify private discussion about Sir Keir Starmer’s future.

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