North East Labour MP has ‘no confidence’ in Keir Starmer

Kate Osborne, the Labour MP for Jarrow and Gateshead East, has said she doesn’t “have any confidence” in Sir Keir Starmer.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff and head of communications both stood down as the fallout over Mr Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador rumbled on into another week. Mandelson was forced to resign from the party and the House of Lords over his relationship with Epstein and also faces a police investigation into whether he leaked sensitive information to the paedophile financier.

“I don’t have any confidence in Keir Starmer and haven’t for some time,” Ms Osborne said.

“I said last week that the buck stops with the leadership, staffing changes were and are essential but they cannot take all the blame.

North East MP Kate Osborne has called for the PM to go. (Image: UK PARLIAMENT)

“We need more than damage limitation; we need a complete change at the top, and we need an end to the dictatorial and chaotic culture that Starmer is and has presided over as leader.

“We need our Labour party to get back to its Labour values, values that deliver for working people, not the elite, values that promote equality, social justice, and restore trust in politics.

“I and a growing number of my colleagues no longer have faith in Keir’s ability to restore that trust in politics.”

It follows an intervention from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on Monday.

Mr Sarwar hit out at “failures in the heart of Downing Street”, warning they were hurting Labour’s chances in Scotland.

He is the most senior Labour politician to call for Sir Keir to go, conscious of the task facing Scottish Labour in May’s Holyrood elections where opinion polls indicate his party faces coming third behind the SNP and Reform.

At a hastily convened press conference in Glasgow, Mr Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”

But as he was speaking, a series of Cabinet ministers rushed out statements in support of Sir Keir, including Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson and Redcar and Cleveland MP Anna Turley.