Recap: Senior figures rally behind Starmer after Anas Sarwar calls for him to quit
In a major intervention, the Scottish Labour leader said the ‘distraction needs to end’
Sir Keir Starmer should quit, the leader of Scottish Labour has said in a blow to the Prime Minister’s fragile authority.
Anas Sarwar used a press conference to call for Sir Keir to resign as the Prime Minister battles to remain in No 10 following the scandal surrounding Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment to Washington as British ambassador, despite his links to Jeffrey Epstein being known.
Mr Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”
Mr Sarwar 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.
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The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quit on Sunday and communications chief Tim Allan left on Monday in the wake of the Lord Mandelson row.
Cabinet ministers publicly backed Sir Keir as Mr Sarwar called for him to go, while Downing Street insisted the Prime Minister would not resign.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Keir Starmer is one of only four Labour leaders ever to have won a general election.
“He has a clear five-year mandate from the British people to deliver change, and that is what he will do.”
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