Labour ranks have started to turn on the Prime Minister with a damning assessment after Reform UK’s overnight surge in the local elections.
Just 12 hours after polls closed, Sir Keir Starmer has already been dragged through the mud by some of his own, including the newly-elected Doncaster mayor Ros Jones who managed to win her region with a wafer-thin margin.
After she was battered by a nail-biting margin of 698 in Yorkshire, Jones urged Starmer to begin responding to those calling for the party to backtrack on its stance on winter fuel and welfare cuts, as well as a stifling national insurance hike.
Echoing Jones’ criticism, Diane Abbott took to X to back her Labour colleague, saying: “Mayor Ros Jones is right on this. The Labour leadership should be listening to voters on winter fuel payments, welfare cuts, the cost of living, the NHS and energy bills.
“Instead, it is attacking our own voters.”
In a similar slam dunk on Labour’s track record over the past 10 months, Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman said: “Runcorn shows Labour must change course.
“People voted for real change last July & an end to austerity.
“The first 10 months haven’t been good enough or what the people want & if we don’t improve people’s living standards then the next government will be an extreme right wing one.”
