North East mayor Kim McGuinness says Keir Starmer on ‘borrowed time’

Kim McGuinness says the Prime Minister has a “very short window to turn this around” in the wake of a brutal set of local election results.

Sir Keir insisted on Friday that he was “not going to walk away”, despite Labour haemorrhaging support across the country and mounting speculation about his future in Downing Street.

In the North East, Labour has ceded control of Sunderland City Council to Reform and was on course to lose power in Newcastle, Gateshead, and South Tyneside.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Friday afternoon, Ms McGuinness said the Prime Minister “has got to get this turned around and get it turned around urgently”.

Asked if he should resign, she replied: “Not now, but I think he is on borrowed time. I think there is an opportunity now to demonstrate that the people of the country have been understood, but Keir needs to show he speaks the same language as the people of our region and he wants the same things. 

“I think he does, I think he hears that. But he is now on borrowed time as far as I am concerned. He has a very short window to turn this around and do it very very quickly.”

The mayor, who was elected to a four-year term in 2024, called this week’s local elections a “really sad day for a lot of good councillors” who were not largely responsible for their losses.

Ms McGuinness said: “This is a reaction to how people feel about national government and the state of the country at the moment. That is something that absolutely needs to be listened to urgently. It needed to be listened to before this and now it is absolutely imperative.”

She added: “It is very clear that people do not feel listened to or understood by government – and I get it. They voted for change and, while we have to be realistic about the fact that change takes time, it is not happening quick enough for people. And so part of this is about making sure the promises made to the public are delivered upon and part of it is about making sure it happens quicker.

“Then, finally, I think they [the government] are absolutely terrible at communicating what they are doing. That is definitely having a negative effect on how people feel and understandably so. The voters are never, ever wrong. Now is the time to listen and make sure people know that they are listening and understanding the scale of the challenge.”

Asked if she would support metro mayor Andy Burnham as a potential replacement for Sir Keir, she said that the Greater Manchester figurehead “would make a great prime minister, but he is not an MP and there is not a leadership contest”.

Former deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner and health secretary Wes Streeting have also been touted as potential contenders to move into Number 10.

Ms McGuinness also said she had seen “green shoots” from the government, like the Renters Rights Act and lifting the two-child benefit cap.

Speaking in London on Friday, Sir Keir said:  “The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved.

“I was elected to meet those challenges but I’m not going to walk away from those challenges.”