Josh Simons, the former Cabinet Office minister, has become the latest Labour MP to call for Keir Starmer to quit. In an article published online by the Times, he says that Labour’s problem is that “we constantly talk big, then act small” and that Starmer has “lost the country”.
Simons used to run the Labour Together thinktank before the general election and resigned as a minister after it emerged that the thinktank had smeared journalists investigating its finances during his tenure. Until then, he was seen as one of the rising stars of the 2024 intake. His article is one of the most substantial contributions from a Labour MP since Thursday calling for the leadership to change.
Simons: Working Class Voters Turned Against Labour
Simons, MP for Makerfield, says he was struck by how working class voters turned against the party last week. “In Wigan, Labour lost every ward. Our vote tanked but turnout also increased, in some cases massively. Working class people queued up to vote against politicians who have built and defended the status quo,” he writes.
He adds: “Towns like mine birthed the Labour party. In Britain’s heartlands, workers, unions, leaders like Keir Hardie, and thinkers like the Webbs came together to secure freedom and justice for everyone. Now, people whisper that high turnout in working class estates is bad for Labour. When a party fears the people it was created to represent, it is marching towards extinction.”
Criticism of Incrementalism
Identifying what has gone wrong, Simons says Labour under Starmer has not been sufficiently radical. “Our party, like many others, is stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment. We defer to elite interests and stakeholders. We ditch radical reforms that would give people power to change their own lives. We lack a bold agenda to harness transformative technologies like AI for public good. The foundations of our security — energy, water, housing and roads — have crumbled while lining the pockets of billionaires who control them,” he writes.
He continues: “We Labour MPs must square up to the truth. These elections were not a normal mid-term drubbing, they were an unequivocal judgment that our actions do not meet the moment. We constantly talk big, then act small.”
Call for Orderly Transition
Simons has worked closely with Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, and is not calling for a leadership contest now. Instead, he advocates a gradual transition to a new leader, a strategy promoted by soft-left Labour MPs who want Burnham to be given time to return to the Commons before Starmer quits. Simons says: “I do not believe the prime minister can rise to this moment. He has lost the country. He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister.”
Simons does not name his preferred candidate. In the article, he says “to avoid leadership chaos, senior figures across factions should come together to decide the best way forward”.
Embracing Risk and Reform
Referring to what a new leader should do, Simons says: “We in Labour console ourselves by saying we build things, where our opponents only tear them down. But too often we reject the demolition required to do the building. We must embrace risk. In a crisis, instead of closing our eyes and hunkering down, we must be alert, listen, adapt and take action.” He cites US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw the New Deal in the 1930s, as a model to follow. Labour MP Liam Byrne also cites Roosevelt in his new book on taking on populists.
LabourList has compiled a list of all Labour MPs who have said or suggested that Starmer should stand down since Thursday.
