Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2023 13:18:01 GMT
Labour MPs urged to launch leadership challenge against Keir Starmer amid anger over two-child benefit cap
Can't see it happening but even if it did, you'd think they'd find someone more exciting than Ed Miliband!
Labour MPs are being urged to launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer amid anger over his refusal to scrap the Tories’ two-child benefit cap.
A group of former advisers who worked for Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn now believe the Labour leader should be toppled because his stance on the welfare policy is part of a wider conservatism that will switch off voters.
The group were planning to approach Ed Miliband to trigger a challenge, i has learned, but the former Labour leader has made clear he thinks the idea is “nuts” and that Starmer has his full loyalty.
“We wouldn’t give these people the time of day. It’s absolutely bonkers because you could not find someone more loyal to Keir than Ed. It’s completely nuts,” a source close to Miliband said.
Sir Keir’s allies were also sanguine about the idea of a leadership challenge, as party rules require 20 per cent of the Parliamentary party – 39 MPs – to launch any such coup attempt.
But party unease over Starmer’s leadership spilled over at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night, when deputy leader Angela Rayner faced calls from backbenchers to rethink the welfare policy.
Sir Keir told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg at the weekend that Labour was “not changing” the controversial two-child cap, even though his shadow ministers had criticised it for increasing child poverty.
One of the group of former advisers said that Starmer’s remark was “the last straw” because it summed up his overall failure to reassure the public that a Labour government would introduce tangible change from Rishi Sunak’s administration.
One said: “There is a view that it’s necessary to approach a senior figure – most obviously Ed Miliband – to press for a leadership challenge to change course. Despite the poll lead, it is not at all obvious that Keir Starmer would win a Labour leadership election if there was a challenge.
“There is a lot of discontent and the two child cap has helped crystallised it. There’s a number of former Labour advisers who think the current course being set for a Labour government is disastrous.
A group of former advisers who worked for Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn now believe the Labour leader should be toppled because his stance on the welfare policy is part of a wider conservatism that will switch off voters.
The group were planning to approach Ed Miliband to trigger a challenge, i has learned, but the former Labour leader has made clear he thinks the idea is “nuts” and that Starmer has his full loyalty.
“We wouldn’t give these people the time of day. It’s absolutely bonkers because you could not find someone more loyal to Keir than Ed. It’s completely nuts,” a source close to Miliband said.
Sir Keir’s allies were also sanguine about the idea of a leadership challenge, as party rules require 20 per cent of the Parliamentary party – 39 MPs – to launch any such coup attempt.
But party unease over Starmer’s leadership spilled over at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night, when deputy leader Angela Rayner faced calls from backbenchers to rethink the welfare policy.
Sir Keir told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg at the weekend that Labour was “not changing” the controversial two-child cap, even though his shadow ministers had criticised it for increasing child poverty.
One of the group of former advisers said that Starmer’s remark was “the last straw” because it summed up his overall failure to reassure the public that a Labour government would introduce tangible change from Rishi Sunak’s administration.
One said: “There is a view that it’s necessary to approach a senior figure – most obviously Ed Miliband – to press for a leadership challenge to change course. Despite the poll lead, it is not at all obvious that Keir Starmer would win a Labour leadership election if there was a challenge.
“There is a lot of discontent and the two child cap has helped crystallised it. There’s a number of former Labour advisers who think the current course being set for a Labour government is disastrous.
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