Left-leaning Labour MPs rallying for leadership contest – report

MPs in the party's soft-left Tribune Group believe they have the 80 members needed to nominate a candidate to the left of Keir Starmer, the Times reports.

According to the publication, the group has yet to rally around a single candidate, but the likes of Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell, culture secretary Lisa Nandy and former transport secretary Louise Haigh are being considered.

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The Tribune Group was relaunched on Tuesday evening, the Times reports. The group sits on the 'soft-left' of Labour, in-between the moderate-right and the left previously represented by Jeremy Corbyn.

One senior member of the group told the Times that Starmer "doesn't have the ability" to turn his premiership around following a chaotic first 16 months in government.

Another MP said: "It’s all about the polls. We can’t be below 20 per cent at the polls for much longer. We can’t carry on like this past May if the [local] elections are as bad as the polls show."

The report comes the week after Number 10 started briefing against health secretary Wes Streeting and said the prime minister was ready to fight any challenge to his leadership.

This week, Starmer assured he would lead Labour into the next election.

In an interview with the Mirror, he said: “Let me be really clear – every minute that’s not spent talking about and dealing with the cost of living is a minute wasted of the political work of this government.”

This came amid controversial plans announced by home secretary Shabana Mahmood to reform the asylum system. The plans, which Mahmood has said are part of effort to fix a "broken system", have sparked anger from left-wing voices and charities including Amnesty International.