By inclination, tradition and design, the Labour Party is much less prone to toppling leaders than their Conservative counterparts. There is no equivalent to the 1922, Sir Graham Brady’s grin and the usual excited talk of ‘letters going in’. Perhaps an equivalent shorthand must now been coined for the process which is going on in the government ranks. The steady drip-drip-drip of MPs calling for Keir Starmer to quit has continued unabated for the past 48 hours. Now we are up to 36 names, with the latest perhaps being the most intriguing of all.
‘A sudden rush for a contest, encouraged by the soft left, could, inadvertently, end up putting the Blairite crown prince into No. 10.’
Josh Simons was elected to parliament in 2024, earmarked as one of the future stars in a Starmer government. Bright, ambitious and close to Morgan McSweeney, he ran the influential Labour Together think tank from 2022 to 2024. He was appointed a minister in September but was forced to quit in February over an investigation into journalists commissioned by his think tank. Ten weeks on, Simons has wrought his revenge on Starmer, penning an article for the Times in which he calls for a new leader. He accuses the Prime Minister of ‘doubling down on a status quo that voters are crying out to change’ and calls for ‘an orderly transition for senior figures to agree a path forward’. ’Senior figures across factions’, suggests Simons, ‘should come together to decide the best way forward.’
The intervention is a striking one. Simons has his critics but is respected among much of the moderate wing of the party. Currently on paternity leave after the birth of his third son, he will not have acted unless he thought there was a serious chance that Starmer will now have to go. It is worth watching to see how many of Simons’ fellow Labour Together alumni now act: at least five were elected in 2024. The first two dozen calls for Starmer to go were figures from the Tribune group like Louise Haigh, the ex-Transport Secretary. Having got the ball rolling, it would be ironic if it was the more centrist wing of Labour that finished off the job.
Talking to Labour MPs, it is striking how much the wind seems to have gone out of Angela Rayner’s sails this past week. A contest right now would likely favour Wes Streeting; a delayed one, Andy Burnham. Success in politics is often a matter of timing. A sudden rush for a contest, encouraged by the soft left, could, inadvertently, end up putting the Blairite crown prince into No. 10 – a very skittish coup.
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