TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

Catherine West's attempt to force a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer appears to have failed.  The Labour backbencher released a statement shortly after Starmer's make or break speech on Monday morning, which received a luke warm response at best.

West's statement in full:

"I have listened to the prime minister's speech this morning.  I welcome the renewed energy and ideas.  However, I have reluctantly concluded that this morning’s speech was too little, too late.

The results last Thursday show that the Prime Minister has failed to inspire hope.  What is best for the party and country now is for an orderly transition.

I am hereby giving notice to No 10 that I am collecting names of Labour MPs to call on the Prime Minister to set a timetable for the election of a new leader in September.

I want to thank everyone who has been in contact over the weekend to offer good wishes.  We need our best top team in place to fight the next election.  We owe working people up and down the country nothing less."

The news will be disappointing for Starmer's critics, especially as momentum seemed to build throughout Sunday.  The number of MPs publicly calling on him to go had more than doubled in 24 hours, from 20 to 42.  Both Streeting and Rayner also emerged from their collective post-election bunkers on Sunday evening.  Streeting is reported to have told Starmer that he is 'prepared to succeed him', but would not challenge the PM directly.  Weak.

Meanwhile, Rayner put Starmer on notice in a speech, declaring: "What we are doing isn't working, and it needs to change".  However, instead of positioning herself as the person to make that change, she endorsed the return of Andy Burnham to the Commons: "We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for, that means bringing our best players into Parliament".  It had been a 'mistake' to block him from standing in Gorton and Denton, she added.

There is still no sign that an MP is willing to make way for Burnham, but it could happen in the coming days as plotters look to keep up the pressure on Starmer.  Whether or not West's threat to raise a petition of Labour MPs can contribute to the pressure remains to be seen, but it would need to contain significantly more than the 42 MPs currently calling on him to go.

Starmer appears to be safe for another day, but it's going to be a long week as he licks his wounds on tenterhooks.

WEST STICKS TO HER GUNS

"The voters sent us a very strong message that we are not good enough".  That was Catherine West's justification for her sensational intervention in trying to force Keir Starmer out of Number Ten.  West was speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday morning, with the BBC presenter making light of her chances.  While it's true, not many Labour MPs have swung behind her move publicly - barely any in fact - many others have said nothing.  This silent majority could spring a surprise on Monday, unless West backs out at the last minute.  She needs 81 comrades to nominate her.

Towards the end of the interview, West was repeatedly asked about reports that allies of other potential leadership candidates had put pressure on her to stand down.  Kuenssberg named Andy Burnham as one of those who had been exerting such pressure.  West repeatedly refused to address the reports and remained steadfast.

Watch below (4 minute watch)

Andy Burnham is probably the only leadership hopeful with a justifiable gripe about West's intervention.  As he is currently on the outside looking in, and cannot participate in a leadership election, he needs more time to enact his reported plan of re-entering the Commons.  However, despite the dust now settling on the election results, no MP has resigned or even signalled their intention to stand aside for him.  Time is not on Burnham's side, especially if West gains the signatures and forces a contest.  A by-election can take up to five weeks to hold and by then it would be too late for Burnham to join the fray.

Other potential challengers have remained tight-lipped since election day, especially Angela Rayner.  She has not posted any response at all to Labour's mauling.  If she and Wes Streeting are serious about succeeding Starmer, they have the most to gain from West's intervention.  The one drawback is that MPs can only nominate one candidate, so it could potentially be very difficult for either of them to gain enough signatures if West successfully collects 81 names herself.

Will either of them strike first in order to head off a potential threat from Burnham?  The silence is deafening.

BACKBENCHER THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET

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.

WHAT DID WEST SEE?

When Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer spoke about the detention of two Labour MPs in Israel, there was a moment that piqued our interest.  It wasn't really anything that dullard Falconer himself had said, but what his colleague Catherine West was doing in the background.  As he droned on about the awful behaviour of Israel and its armed forces, West reached across behind him and picked up his mobile phone.  Peaking down at the screen her face turned to a mix of horror and disgust.

Watch the clip below.

What on earth did she see?

STARMER AT FRONTBENCHER'S BOOK LAUNCH

Keir Starmer has doubled down on his second jobs hypocrisy by attending a book launch by one of his own frontbenchers.  Nick Thomas-Symonds had spent the last fortnight promoting his 544 page biography of Harold Wilson, for which Starmer had already provided a quote for the cover.  On Wednesday night the Labour leader joined Thomas-Symonds for the official launch of his book (the book itself had already been on sale for a week).

Thomas-Symonds was also joined by Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost (son of David).  Frost appeared to throw his impartiality out of the window by praising the book and its author in a tweet.  "A great launch for a fabulous book, which I highly recommend. Congrats Nick!" he wrote.

Keir Starmer has repeatedly called for the banning of second jobs for MPs, with 'limited exceptions for public service'.  A good example of such an exception would be NHS doctor Rosena Allin-Khan, who is also a Labour frontbencher.  However, is a biographer or author really a 'public service' role Sir Keir?

Two other Labour frontbenchers - Anneliese Dodds and Catherine West - didn't take exception to Nick's second job as the latter proudly tweeted her attendance along with a photo posing with the author.

Keir Starmer at the book launch, while the author (left) and Wilfred Frost
(right) look on

Labour frontbencher Catherine West poses with the author while her colleague
Anneliese Dodds can be seen in the background (red dress)

Rampant hypocrisy in action.

CATHERINE WEST'S HUMBLE PIE

Having endured a weekend of mockery, Labour's Catherine West has now deleted her controversial vaccine tweet and issued an apology.  Last year the staunch Remainer tweeted that the UK government's decision to opt out of the EU's vaccine procurement scheme was 'dumber and dumber'.  Needless to say, that tweet has not aged well.

Credit where it's due - a Remainer who admits they were wrong about their beloved EU is a rarity indeed.

CATHERINE WEST'S DUMB TWEET

Labour frontbencher Catherine West tweeted in July 2020 that the UK government's decision to opt out of the EU vaccine scheme was 'dumber and dumber'.  Needless to say, the tweet hasn't aged well.

If Britain was committed to the EU-wide procurement scheme, the mass vaccination currently taking place across the UK would not be happening.  In some EU countries the shortage of jabs has led to a suspension in their vaccination programmes, while Hungary has turned its back on the scheme and is looking to China and Russia for Covid vaccines.  The Czech Republic is also looking at the Russian vaccine.

Meanwhile, in response to the British vaccine coup, the EU responded in extraordinarily petulant fashion by threatening to impose border controls at the UK border with Ireland.  The decision to trigger Article 16 was quickly rescinded, but the damage was already done.  Having threatened to take the British government to court over the Internal Market Bill last year for pretty much the same reason, it was an act of rank hypocrisy and aggression.  Even arch Remainer Tony Blair criticised the move, saying it was 'very foolish'.  Indeed.

Needless to say, Catherine West is staying very quiet about the EU vaccine crisis - despite her role as Shadow Minister for Europe.  What an embarrassment.

Catherine West seen here at a 'People's Vote' rally with fellow Labour Remainer
Seb Dance