Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, is resisting pressure from within his own party to backtrack on harsh policies such as winter fuel cuts for pensioners, amid disquiet in the Labour Party following its disastrous performance in local elections in England last week.
A caucus of Labour MPs representing the so-called Red Wall seats in England’s north and midlands, where Labour was hammered last week by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, called on the prime minister to change course to see off the threat.
“Our voters told us loudly and clearly that we have not met their expectations,” said the caucus, which includes more than 40 MPs in areas being targeted by Reform. They criticised Mr Starmer’s post-elections promise to go even “further and faster” with planned reforms, as they urged him to “break the disconnect” between working-class northern towns and Westminster.
“Labour cannot afford to lose the Red Wall again,” said the MPs, many of whom are new to Westminster, having only won their seats back from the Conservatives who made sweeping gains in the area in 2019. “Act now before it’s too late.”
Jo White, the Labour Red Wall caucus chair who represents Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, also warned the prime minister at the weekend to stop “pussyfooting around”.
Restlessness among his backbenchers followed comments from senior Labour figures, both inside and outside Mr Starmer’s cabinet, who have heaped pressure on to the prime minister in the first real Labour grumblings over his leadership since he led them back to power last July.
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Eluned Morgan, the Labour first minister of Wales, where the party is battling to prevent being squeezed out of power next year, said she was “losing patience” with Mr Starmer’s government. Labour is currently polling third in Wales, behind nationalist group Plaid Cymru and Reform, in advance of next May’s Senedd election. She said the winter fuel cut comes up “time and again” in Wales.
Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the health secretary who is seen as a future leadership challenger, acknowledged that the UK government’s decision to means test the winter fuel payments for pensioners has angered working-class voters and played a role in the party’s poor performance last week, when it lost two-thirds of the council seats it defended.
“We have got the message,” said Mr Streeting. Former frontbencher Louise Haigh, who was sacked as transport secretary last year by Mr Starmer, also broke cover to criticise the party’s strategy in recent days.
In a surprise turn in the House of Commons on Wednesday, even the opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the prime minister for not listening to his own party over the fuel cuts.
“His mayor in Doncaster says it’s wrong. His first minister in Wales says it’s wrong. Even his own MPs are saying it’s wrong. Will he at least listen to his own party and change course?” said Ms Badenoch to Mr Starmer at prime minister’s questions (PMQs).
The prime minister doubled down, however, and retreated to his mantra that the Tories had left his government with a £22 billion “black hole” in Britain’s finances, which he had to fill.
“No other party is prepared to say how they would put the finances straight,” he said.
“The only black hole is the one the prime minister is digging,” said Ms Badenoch.
In further evidence of the Labour government’s unwillingness to give Reform an excuse to bash it over immigration, a spokesman for the prime minister evaded questions from Westminster journalists after PMQs over how many more people from India might move to Britain as a result of a trade deal struck in recent days.
