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‘A torpedo, not a warning shot’: Labour MPs urge Starmer to change course after Reform surge in local elections
3 May 2025, 19:03 | Updated: 4 May 2025, 06:03
Several backbench Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to change course after a set of election results one of them described as "a torpedo".
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Ian Byrne, the MP for Liverpool West Derby, told LBC's Natasha Devon that it would be "unforgivable" not to adapt after the elections, which saw Labour lose 180 council seats and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Sir Keir and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch are both facing pressure to reverse their parties' fortunes after the local elections saw Reform UK make major gains across England.
Nigel Farage hailed the results as "the end of two-party politics" and "the death of the Conservative Party" as Reform picked up ten councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday's poll.
Conservative figures have meanwhile sought to deny that the results were "existential" for the party.
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Mr Byrne, who is on the left of the party, said Sir Keir Starmer's pledge after the results to go "further and faster" on Labour's current trajectories was "tin-eared".
"I think if you don't take on board what's happened over this week, then you're doing the Labour Party and the country a disservice," he said.
Mr Byrne said the government had made some good achievements, but they had been "drowned out" by controversial decisions such as the winter fuel allowance cut.
"That's caused seething anger," he said.
Mr Byrne said the election results were not an "early shot" at Sir Keir's government, which was elected less than a year ago.
"It's a torpedo that has been sent from the country to the government to stop, reflect and change course and do something totally different."
He added: "I think for me the huge fear is that the next administration will not be a Conservative government who've been no friends to us, it'll be going into the unknown with Reform. That should really scare us all."
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Mr Byrne's criticism of the government after the disappointing results was echoed by other backbenchers who spoke out against the direction of travel under Sir Keir.
Speaking to LBC, former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said he is terrified of the prospect of a future far-right government.
The Independent MP for Hayes and Harlington said: ““My big fear at the moment is that if we don't start listening to people, we're preparing the ground for the furthest right administration in government that we've ever seen in our history, that's the danger.
“I'm really frightened that we would have a far-right government under Farage and if we don't listen to the people, if we don't change on issues like the disability cuts, I think we're preparing the ground for them.”
He added that many Labour MPs now feel "incredibly vulnerable", saying "we listen to what the electorate have told us and think hard about where we go from here, what the strategy is."
McDonnell slammed Sir Keir response to the string of defeats, in which he vowed to "move further and faster."
"The problem is he's moving further and faster in the same direction and that's not what the message was on the doorstep or, to be honest, in the conversations we've been having for the last few months in all our constituencies," Mr McDonnell said.
He added: “When they saw then that a Labour government, is cutting the winter fuel allowance, sticking with the two child limit, which pushes families into poverty and now threatens cuts to disability benefits for some of the poorest and hardest hit in our society, you can understand why they think this isn't what a Labour government does and they feel betrayed.”
Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds, has appeared to echo Mr McDonnell's concerns.
He told LBC's Matthew Wright: "The thing that flummoxes me and is flummoxing a lot of people, is this idea that we need to just go further and faster because what we need isn't a pickup in pace by the government.
"What we need is a change in direction, not a change in speed, because in Runcorn on Thursday and elsewhere, time and time again decisions people didn't expect from our government, cutting the winter fuel allowance, the proposed cuts to disability benefits, those are the kinds of issues that have been coming up.
“And people have been scratching their head and thinking, why would a Labour government do this?"
He added that Labour could end up "paving the way for a Reform government or a "Reform -Conservative coalition" after the next general election if it fails to change direction.
"That would have devastating consequences to the people our party exists to represent,” he added.
Rachael Maskell MP, who represents York Central for Labour, said her party has "special responsibilities" to serve the needs of people and should scrap winter fuel and welfare policies that she said are pushing voters away.
When Labour does not meet the "sweet spot" of offering support and protection in public services, voters look to "less favourable places", she said.
Ms Maskell said Labour needs to be driven by "a framework of values, which is about protecting people".
"I believe that when Labour does not meet that sweet spot, that expectation that people have of a Labour government, then they start to look in less favourable places for where that help comes from.
"Yesterday, many people were searching for that response, to find that protection, to get that support.
"That's why Labour have got to learn from the results yesterday and ensure that we do meet the needs of people in this country in very, very trying times."
Ms Maskell said that Labour is not "any other political party".
"We were created to serve the needs of people across working areas of our country so that people had a real voice of the kind of change that they wanted to see.
"I think it's now time, if Labour are going to go further faster, to pick up that voice, to put our fingers on the pulse and to understand that that responsibility that the 1945 government set out, putting that safety net in place at the welfare state, is on our watch and is our responsibility."
Her fellow backbench MP Emma Lewell, who has represented South Shields since 2013, said a "change of plan" is needed and said it is "tone deaf" to repeat that Labour will keep moving "further and faster".
Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said the Government's first 10 months "haven't been good enough or what the people want" and warned that the next government will be "an extreme right-wing one" if people's living standards are not improved.
But the PM insisted there was "tangible proof that things are finally beginning to go in the right direction", while admitting he was not satisfied with where the country was.
Writing in the Times, he said: "I am acutely aware that people aren't yet feeling the benefits. That's what they told us last night.
"Until they do, I will wake up every morning determined to go further and faster."
Sir Keir signalled his priorities as he pledged to deliver "more money in your pocket, lower NHS waiting lists, lower immigration numbers".
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Mr Farage has warned council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives to seek "alternative careers".
A newly elected Reform UK councillor said Durham County Council would be "getting the auditors in" right away to slash spending in areas like net zero and green initiatives.
"We're getting the auditors in to see ... actually what those jobs are, and if they're good value for money, and if they're not, well, the answer is, 'Yeah, goodbye'," Darren Grimes, a Durham councillor said.
Cash spent on such programmes is "vanishingly small" and discretionary spending for councils is mostly spent on social care, libraries and filling in potholes, Tony Travers, a professor of public policy at the LSE, told the programme.
The Tories, squeezed between Reform and the Liberal Democrats, lost more than 600 councillors and all 15 of the councils it controlled going into the election, among the worst results in the party's history.
Mrs Badenoch apologised to defeated Conservative councillors and pledged to get the party back to being viewed as the "credible alternative to Labour".
