Catherine West: I’ve been inundated with support from MPs and could go all the way

Catherine West, the Labour MP who plans to challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership of the party, says she has already been “inundated” with support from colleagues and is prepared to go all the way if no other candidates announce leadership bids by Monday, even though she feels she is not the best person for the role. 

The Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP and former Foreign Office minister revealed in an exclusive interview with the New Statesman that she hadn’t “even looked at the rules” of launching a Labour leadership contest before launching her bid.

She also revealed that senior figures in the Labour Party asked her to delay her leadership bid until early next week after she informed the chief whip and party chair of her intentions, but she refused. She says that she will not stand down unless other candidates announce their intentions publicly on Monday. She said: “I’ve been asked, could I hold off until Tuesday morning to put my email around to everybody asking for names? Fortunately, because the BBC have run it, I’ve been inundated with names, actually. So I might be a lone wolf, but maybe I’m the lone wolf who might end up getting us somewhere.”

While she admits that she is both a “lone wolf” and a “stalking horse”, she is prepared to go all the way if others do not step up. “You know what sometimes happens to stalking horses? They become the candidate,” she said, “But I don’t think I will. I think the right person is going to be somebody who’s probably more senior in the party, who’s got more of a base. I don’t have a base, I’ve never worked a base up.”

West says she is a stalking horse for no candidate in particular. Asked about her ideal Labour leader to replace Starmer, she said: “There’s plenty of them. There’s no shortage of them. And also, maybe through this process of not having a long plan, we’ll get some people forward who will actually be really good, we’re just not sure who they are. They may be newly elected, or, you know, they may be people who really understand the mentality of the Reform Party, and they’re going to be really good. Maybe I am a lone wolf, but I don’t think I’m alone when I’m getting lots of texts and emails from people saying, ‘thank goodness for you.’”

West said she expects to get the requisite 81 MP supporters to launch her challenge. When asked, she said she would not wind down her candidacy on the basis of private assurances by other senior candidates that they would challenge Starmer. “They’ve got to be open, they need to be upfront like me,” she said, “I’ve spoken to the chair of the party, I’ve spoken to the chief whip, I’ve said what I’m going to do, and they need a plan. They need to respond to that. And it is a bit of a risk, because obviously there’s all sorts of different scenarios that could happen. But equally, it’s a risk not doing anything and being passive. 

West said there are “oodles of talent” in the cabinet who could replace Starmer and that because of her drastic action, other unconsidered candidates including MPs from the 2024 intake may emerge as potential leaders. But she ruled out any chance of Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, taking the crown. “I really like Andy, but he’s not here on the spot, so he can’t really do it,” she said, “I’m sorry for people who had a big plan about particular candidates who one day will be, you know, an MP and all that sort of thing, or other candidates who want this or who want that, but sometimes after an election, that is the time for leadership hopefuls to come forward and to say their vision of things.”

She acted because she believes Starmer is not the best person to take on Farage and “I’ve been around long enough not to want to ever go through an election like I just went through again.” West also revealed that a personal friend lost their previously safe Labour council seat at the local elections, which pushed her to act. 

This interview was conducted on the evening of 9 May 2026 and the transcript has been lightly edited for clarity

THE NEW STATESMAN: Hi Catherine, it sounds like you’ve had quite an exciting day.

CATHERINE WEST: It’s been a very disappointing few days. If you think about what happened on Thursday at the polls, which is all that matters at the moment, I do think that we need to change at the top. And I think basically my push at the moment is for the leadership hopefuls to come forward, because I think we do need to have that conversation about who the best person is to take the fight to Farage and ask him a few questions about where the £5m came from, and did he spend it on in Wales or Scotland, because they’re now a national movement, and only Labour really can beat Reform. And so we shouldn’t be wasting time waiting for a perfect moment. We should be using the next few weeks to get ourselves in order. My preferred option is for people in the cabinet to close the door and come up with a person that they can all get behind: there’s oodles of talent in the cabinet.

And also I think Keir should still be in the cabinet. I think he’s wonderful on foreign affairs and things like that. So this isn’t about being against him. I just think we need somebody who will be the best at taking on Farage. And so I could just tell we were going to go into sort of a comfort zone. I think the Prime Minister’s intention is to give a speech on Monday afternoon about how do we respond to last Thursday’s election result? And that’s really just not where the country is at. They’ve sent us a very clear message, and we need to respond, which means changing around our top team. And also we need to repair the relationship with the civil service, which is not in a good place after various sackings at the top of the civil service. We need to rebuild that relationship, and I think that’s probably best done with a new person who can just have a bit of a shake up. Because otherwise we could easily go into the cocoon of parliament this week, pretend nothing happened last Thursday, and then I think at the end, when we come to actually having the next general election, we could end up with an electoral map with which is a light-coloured blue, which I don’t think anyone in progressive politics wants.

So I thought, okay, sometimes it’s just you. You’re the person who’s got to do it. So I just decided, and there’s some people who have a plan, a very complicated plan about Andy Burnham. I really like Andy, but he’s not here on the spot, so he can’t really do it. But that’s not to say he couldn’t come in and be a part of a new team, because he’s a very, very popular politician, and I think he should have a role. But I do also think we have a lot of talent, both in the cabinet, but also in our newly elected MPs from 2024 so, there’s a few options there. But what I couldn’t bear is the idea that we could just go back into the lukewarm tepid bath and say, “everything will be alright, don’t worry” when I think actually we were being sent a bit of an SOS last Thursday from our electors, saying, come on, you’ve got to fix this up.

I noticed since your announcement you’re already being described by people in No 10 as a kind of lone wolf or a freelancer. How do you feel about that characterisation?

I feel fine about that, because actually, I’ve been totally open with the chief whip, I’ve been totally open with Anna Turley, who’s a good friend of mine, who’s the chair of the party, but I just see things differently because I was a borough leader. I know after an election, you have a sort of lucidity to your analysis. You know, without beating around the bush, one of my best friends, who’s the council leader in my patch, was decapitated in the safest Labour ward. Keir Starmer’s council leader in his backyard, decapitated, Eluned Morgan, an excellent national leader of Wales, decapitated. Scotland, Anas Sarwar announced the result within about ten minutes of being at the count. We can’t have this. They are our three actual major Labour heartlands, and we’re not responding, we’re pretending that it was just a Sunday school picnic.

We’ve got to actually respond to the message that was sent to us, which was: get your act together, Labour. And so that’s why I’m doing this, and I’m sorry for people who had a big plan about particular candidates who one day will be an MP and all that sort of thing, or other candidates who want this or who want that, but sometimes after an election, that is the time for leadership hopefuls to come forward and to say their vision of things, how they would do things. And yet, we have the Prime Minister about to do a speech on Monday afternoon. Because, you know, I’ve been asked, could I hold off until Tuesday morning to put my email around to everybody asking for names? Fortunately, because the BBC have run it, I’ve been inundated with names, actually. So I might be a lone wolf, but maybe I’m the lone wolf who ends up getting us somewhere.

Can I just ask where those requests for you to delay to Tuesday came from? Did they come from No 10?

Yes, from the leadership. Not Keir himself, but the leadership. I’ve been totally open the whole way.

So you warned the chief whip and the chair of the party that you would do this?

Yes, because I just think, you know, we are in an actual sort of electoral emergency right now. Unless we act quickly, it won’t be good for the Labour Party. Won’t be good for democracy. And in my view, with Reform being a risk, we’ve got to get onto this very quickly. We’ve got do some fundraising, by the way, because if they get £5m, we need to be doing some fundraising. Do you know what I mean? Like, we’ve actually got to think on our feet, be agile and get into an attacking mode, not a defensive mode.

I also wonder, since you warned the leadership that you were doing this, did you also warn or talk to or discuss this with any of the potential candidates?

No because I don’t need to, because the press have told them I’m not into this and that group or party or individual. I’m into, let’s have politicians being politicians, which is standing up and saying, “This is what I believe in. Give me your support, and I’ll carry this forward.”

Can I just ask where you would place yourself within the Labour Party?

Probably centre-left. But I also think because our programme’s nailed down, we’ve got a manifesto, we’ve actually done some really good things. And you know, going into the last two years, that’s two years to get some more things done, and then we’re into the final year of the campaign where we’ve got to really just work our absolute socks off. The leader has got to be on the telly. They’ve got to be out there, knocking on doors, shaking hands. And I just personally do not feel that at the moment that’s where Keir’s energy is. It’s much more in the back room thinking about plans and schemes and I think we just have to get that right person. And so, unfortunately, it’s not nice for people, because we do have to be running the country at the same time, but we do actually have to get moving on this. We don’t really have a lot of time to waste.

You mentioned on the BBC that you had ten MPs signed up, and you also just said then that you kind of had a bit more. 

Yes. When people stop ringing me, I’ll be able to count them up but people like you keep bringing me, keeping the story alive.

How broad politically would you say that support is in terms of the politics of the Labour Party. Is it just one faction?

Oh I don’t know, because I haven’t actually looked at who they are, but I think it’s quite broad, because the parliamentary Labour party now is pretty big. So not all the PLP will actually know who I am, because I was a minister for a year when everybody was getting to know each other. Also, we have such good representation around the country. We have Scottish MPs. We have Welsh MPs. We have people from the Midlands. We have people from country towns. We have people from the seaside. We have a fantastic resource, which is our MPs, and yet we’re not tooling them up to be the messengers to stop Reform, which has got to be our main target now. That’s got to be our job for the next two years. But you know, clearly, I know a few because I used to be a borough leader. I was a council leader. I’ve been in public life since 2001 when I first was a councilor, and I’ve been around the traps. But it’s not about me. It’s about who the leader is going to be.

So in terms of identifying yourself, kind of on the centre left of the party, you’ve already insinuated in what we’ve said so far that Burnham wouldn’t be right, because there are so many hypotheticals?

I’m just worried about that plan, because it’s not this week. We need this week. And I know people are getting very nervous about that, because they’d rather stick with the safety of, you know, “let’s stick with Keir, it’s a bit safer. Then we can have a plan. We can have a timetable and all this.” No, we need to get moving on this so that by the time the summer comes and then we have the conference speech, we’re already almost into setting the frame for the next general election. That is how desperate I am about what is happening in electoral politics at the moment.

And of the available candidates, who would you say in an ideal world would be the best Labour leader and Prime Minister?

Well, there’s plenty of them. There’s plenty of them. There’s no shortage of them. And also, maybe through this process of not having a long plan, we’ll get some people forward who will actually be really good, we’re just not sure who they are. They may be newly elected, or they may be people who really understand the mentality of the Reform Party, and they’re going to be really good. And I know that maybe I am a lone wolf, but I don’t think I’m alone when I’m getting lots of texts and emails from people saying, “Thank goodness for you.”

If no one steps up by Monday, by your deadline that you’ve given, would you be prepared to go all of the way actually, and fight a Labour leadership election and possibly even end up as prime minister?

Well, put it this way, if 81, and I think I’m allowed to count myself, if 80 members of parliament give me their name by Monday, I think that qualifies me to go onto a list of some sort. I haven’t actually even looked at the rules because I don’t actually want to do this. I want the people who have been planning this for years to do it. Because I don’t necessarily think I am the best person for the role, but all I know is we need it. We need to be very focused for the next two years on beating Reform. And that is basically it: could the people please stand up who want to lead the Labour Party and do that?

It may be possible that you get the 81 signatures, you trigger the leadership election, and then that allows other candidates to come in and put their names forward. In that eventuality, would you withdraw your candidacy?

Oh, that’s ten steps ahead. Let’s just get to Monday morning, because I suspect with the sort of day I’ve had today that by Monday morning there’ll be a solution, and I can just back away. And I know people, some people will be upset with me because of the risk because some of them had a plan about, you know, “in six months time, we’re gonna do this, and then we’re gonna do that”. Sorry, that’s just too late. In year two, we need a two-year plan, and in the next two months, you put the plan together.

Are you worried at all that if this fails, it will actually backfire and end up securing Keir Starmer’s position for longer?

Well if he fights for it, maybe we’ll see the Keir Starmer who’s going to take the fight to Nigel Farage. Good. So that’s my feeling, that’s politics.

Is there a world in which you think with a fundamental change to attitude and outlook, Keir Starmer could carry on as Prime Minister?

Yes, if he stood up. Where is he today? We’re rolling out Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman, who I adore, but they haven’t actually ever faced Reform. It’s a new force in politics. It’s very dangerous if you believe in progressive politics, and having an inclusive society, and I don’t think we are matching the level of urgency that this situation requires.

You said on the BBC that if you didn’t hear from the hopefuls by Monday, you would press on. Can you just clarify for me, when you say “hear from them”, do you mean hear from them privately, assuring you that they will stand, or do you mean you want them to really come out publicly?

No, no, none of that. They’ve got to be open, they need to be upfront like me. I’ve spoken to the chair of the party, I’ve spoken to the chief whip, I’ve said what I’m going to do, and they need a plan. They need to respond to that. And it is a bit of a risk, because obviously there’s all sorts of different scenarios that could happen. But equally, it’s a risk not doing anything and being passive. And that’s just not a position that I think is tenable. 

There is some skepticism that you will actually manage to get the 81 signatures. What would you say to that?

[Laughter] As I said to you before, when I hang up from you, I’ve got another couple of calls to make. I will count up the names, and I’ll try and work out which wing of the party they are and everything. But I think sometimes actually, I think the left and right question is becoming much less important, because really Reform, which we consider to be a right-wing party, has taken a lot of our voters, right? So we have to understand what it is that we need to do to win them back, and that’s all sorts of things about, you know, trying to get more candidates who look like the people we want to serve. That’s, you know. But this, all of this, will happen once the right person comes forward.

And just on that phrase, stalking horse, which people use about candidates, are you a stalking horse and for whom?

I suppose so, why not? You know what sometimes happens to stalking horses? They become the candidate. But I don’t think I will. I think the right person is going to be somebody who’s probably more senior in the party, who’s got more of a base. I don’t have a base, I’ve never worked a base up because I’ve never really thought about things like this. But I do think that I’ve been around long enough not to want to ever go through an election like I just went through again.

[Further reading: All eyes on Angela Rayner]