Labour MP pleads with colleagues to stop 'car crash' leadership election as Streeting poised to launch contest

Luke Akehurst, MP for North Durham, shared his worries on Breakfast with Nick Ferrari on Thursday morning that Wes Streeting "could start the ball rolling" on a contest.

Mr Akehurst is concerned a contest could result in a Prime Minister that was "significantly to the left of Keir Starmer or either me or Wes Streeting."

"I don't want that because that isn't the platform that we won the general election on.

"I don't think that an adequate response to Reform sweeping areas like mine and County Durham is to say that the Labour Party should move leftwards."

He went on in an appeal to his party: "I would plead with all of these potential leadership candidates that there's still time to stop this and get behind the Prime Minister and concentrate on delivery.

"The country and the party don't need a car crash of a leadership election.”

Mr Akehurst clarified he himself would back Starmer in a contest - and that he thinks he'd "probably win".

"I'm pretty robust about the chances of Kier holding on if there's a contest," he said, but reminded Ferrari that Labour Party members "don't like the idea of chucking their leaders out."

He also said a contest would "paralyse" government and cause "huge market turmoil."

"We've already lost £3 billion of money that's having to go on interest payments because of this market turmoil, that we could be spending on public services. And it's not a good look.

"We saw what the Tories looked like when they kept having leadership contests. It will make a bad situation worse.”

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Streeting is reportedly preparing to quit his Cabinet post and then declare his challenge to the Prime Minister.

It is understood that he has amassed the support of a minimum of 81 Labour MPs needed to trigger the formal contest for the top job.

This anticipated resignation comes after Mr Streeting and Sir Keir held a bombshell 16-minute meeting on Wednesday about the direction in which the party is heading after their disastrous local election results last week.

Labour lost a slew of councils and more than 1,400 councillors in an electoral wipeout.