Labour backbencher Catherine West has declared that she will challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership if no-one else comes forward by Monday morning. This is the biggest development yet in the fall out from Thursday's election mauling, albeit not quite what many had envisaged when it came to the process of ousting Starmer.
Clearly frustrated by the lack of movement since the full election horror unfolded on Friday, West informed the BBC of her intention. She refused to name a preferred successor to Starmer, but appeared to confirm that there are multiple plotters already circulating: "I think there are several people who would like to do it, who have been planning for months, but I'm very surprised that none of them has popped up today to say ‘I will do it’."
She continued: "Keir has done excellent work rebuilding the Labour party and on foreign policy, but what we do worry about is taking the fight to Reform on the domestic agenda, which I think he has less of a grip of, and also trying to identify traditional Labour voters who we've lost so that we can get them back on side and we can win the country in the 2029 general election. We can't just go on with our main spokesperson being Keir."
Watch the moment she drops the leadership bombshell below.
West could potentially be a stalking horse for one of the plotters, throwing her name in the hat so they can join the contest at a later date, after which she drops out - having served her purpose. That is what will probably happen anyway, even if she is acting unilaterally out of genuine frustration.
West has been the MP for the north London constituency of Hornsey and Friern Barnet (formerly Hornsey and Wood Green) since 2015. Before becoming an MP she served on Islington Borough Council and was the council leader between 2010 and 2013. She is a staunch Remainer and a Fabian, just like the man she is trying to force out. She served on the front benches under both Corbyn and Starmer, but has been a backbench MP since leaving the government in last September's cabinet reshuffle.
Just like most of her comrades, West is from a bourgeois background. She is the daughter of schoolteachers, was privately educated and is a university graduate. She was born and bred in Australia, having only moved to the UK in 1998. Her first role in the Labour party was as a caseworker for Tottenham MP Dave Lammy.
If no-one meets her ultimatum and she seeks to challenge Starmer on Monday, she will need the backing of 81 colleagues in Westminster to do so.
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