At the time of writing on Monday evening, POLITICO’s count had increased to more than 70 MPs — ministerial aides were starting to add to the public calls, and Starmer, who came to power on a landslide less than two years ago, appeared to have lost the support of several key Cabinet ministers ahead of a Tuesday meeting.
His only grace — for now — is that Catherine West, a Labour backbencher who threatened to launch a leadership bid designed to swiftly break Labour’s deadlock and force other contenders to pin their colors to the mast, ended up watering down her bid.
The efforts to topple Starmer are far for from over, and look set to accelerate Tuesday. Here are the avenues that could see him ousted.
1) MPs force Starmer to set an exit timetable
West shied away from an immediate leadership bid of her own, something that would’ve drawn the serious leadership contenders out of their state of unreadiness. But the former minister did deploy a secondary challenge — writing to colleagues asking for them to call on Starmer to set events in motion so a new leader can be elected in September.
It’s a more bloodless approach, aimed at convincing Starmer to stand aside gracefully rather than lose a contest. And it’s one that some senior MPs have in recent days have been coalescing around.
Labour rifts would undoubtedly be ripped wide open in a contest that followed, but at least the eviction of the PM from office would be more orderly.
