Keir Starmer ally launches attack on Labour MPs calling for PM to resign: 'Completely destabilising!'

An ally of Sir Keir Starmer has launched a blistering attack against Labour MPs who have been calling for the Prime Minister to resign.

Speaking to GB News, Luke Akehurst declared that such an attack on the Prime Minister is "completely destabilising" for the country.

He told host Martin Daubney: "I just think it is completely destabilising for people to be sending in letters asking for him to stand down.

"They're not even going through the appropriate process to cause a leadership election."

Explaining the proper process, Mr Akehurst said: "If you want to change the leader of the Labour Party, you need to announce that you're a candidate and get 81 people to nominate you, and then we can have a leadership election.

"But actually, I'm sceptical that there's anyone out there with 81 people."

The Labour MP expressed his disappointment in his colleagues for rebelling against the Prime Minister just one day before the King's Speech to Parliament.

He fumed: "We're getting this kind of drip, drip, drip, which is damaging and it needs it needs to end.

"We've got the King's Speech tomorrow, and we're going to have people carrying on with these antics while the King is literally reading out the legislative programme for the Labour Party for the rest of the Parliament? I'm not impressed."

Mr Akehurst urged his colleagues to "get on with the business of governing" despite feeling "hurt by the local election results".

The MP was pressed on why the identities of the 100 Labour MPs supporting the Prime Minister remains a "mystery".

Mr Akehurst assured: "The names are going to be published, and the number is going up all the time.

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"It's been organised by Sean Woodcock and Perran Moon, who are backbench Labour MPs who you may not be aware of, but I'm impressed by what they've been doing today to contact colleagues."

Pressed again by Martin on whether he will reveal any more names on the list, Mr Akehurst denied to give any more information.

He told GB News: "You'll get the list, it's going to be published. But loads of us have been putting out statements or in my case, an entire article, because I can write quite fast. So loads of us have been putting out stuff or doing media.

"There's plenty of evidence of quite a large component of that 103 plus names, but the list is going to be put online and you can all have the opportunity to scrutinise it."

Mr Akehurst added: "There are good colleagues that have taken all kinds of different positions on this, but I'm proud to be part of that large group that are saying, actually, the Prime Minister needs to be given the space to do his job and get on with changing the country."

Questioned by Martin on Angela Rayner's alleged plans to launch a leadership campaign, the Labour MP made clear that he would "support Keir" if an election took place.

He concluded: "At least that has an honesty to it instead of people just issuing vague calls for him to go, so it'd be interesting to see if that actually happens.

"If she actually gets the 81 nominations, then I will support Keir if there's a contested election. All the signals are from Keir that if someone actually triggers a leadership election, he will fight against. It could be more than one opponent and I think he would stand a very good chance of winning."