11 Labour Unions Demand Starmer Quit Before Next Election After Devastating Results
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 13
11 Labour Unions Demand Starmer Quit Before Next Election After Devastating Results
9 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 13
Eleven Labour-affiliated unions said Keir Starmer should leave before the next election, hardening earlier expectations into a joint demand after meeting on Tuesday.
The unions, representing 4 million workers, said Labour "cannot continue on its current path" after last week's "devastating" election results and called for a fundamental shift in economic policy and political strategy.
Their statement was a compromise: some unions wanted a timetable for Starmer's exit, while Community and GMB were reluctant to be drawn into a leadership battle, but all agreed he should go before the vote.
Starmer skipped the unions' meeting and has insisted he will stay on, while Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said no leadership contest exists because Labour's 81-nomination threshold for a challenger has not been met.
The intervention adds pressure on a prime minister already facing cabinet and backbench divisions, even as unions credited his government with employment-law reforms and a higher minimum wage.
Can Starmer's high-stakes King's Speech save his premiership, or is it the prelude to his forced resignation?
As powerful unions move to oust Starmer, who are they secretly backing to take control of the Labour party?
Amidst Labour's collapse and Reform UK's surge, is Britain's traditional two-party political system now permanently broken?