Catherine West backs down from Starmer challenge but urges him to go by September

Backbench MP calls prime minister’s speech ‘too little, too late’ but stops short of moving to stand against him herself Who are the main threats to Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership? Catherine West, the Labour MP who announced a challenge to Keir Starmer’s leadership, has changed course to say she instead wants the prime minister to set a timetable of September for his departure. West, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a former Foreign Office minister, announced on Saturday that she would seek to gather the 81 Labour MPs’ names needed to formally challenge Starmer, saying this was just a device to tempt others to stand and that she did not wish to take over. In a statement released after Starmer’s speech on Monday morning in which he said he would fight on despite terrible results for Labour in elections last week, West called for an orderly process for Starmer to depart. She said: “I have listened to the prime minister’s speech this morning. I welcome the renewed energy and ideas. However, I have reluctantly concluded that this morning’s speech was too little, too late. “The results last Thursday show that the prime minister has failed to inspire hope. What is best for the