LABOUR big guns today warn Sir Keir Starmer must radically change course or face a wipeout at the next election.
is reeling after losing nearly 200 councillors and a crunch MP by-election in Labour’s old Red Wall heartlands.
The embattledwill try to get on the front foot by announcing a new immigration crackdown and vowing an end to “soft touch”; borders over the next few weeks.
But several leading Labour figures said the party is in “existential crisis”; as they unleashed both barrels on the PM after their local election drubbing.
Writing exclusively in The Sun on Sunday, said voters have sent a May Day “distress signal”; that must not be ignored.
said: “Be under no illusions, this Labour Government faces the same odium and fate as the Tories unless it acts decisively to lead the country in the right direction.”;
He added: “Labour must repair the broken covenant it forged with the working class of this country.
“We must honour our tradition and return to our roots.”;
Cuts to the winter fuel allowance given to pensioners “just felt wrong”; while severe Net Zero targets are “a delusion”;, the influential Labour peer warned.
Labour must get tough on immigration by quitting the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping the Human Rights act used by illegal immigrants to stay here, he said.
The added: “The ability to deport a drug dealer must not depend on the quality of chicken nuggets in Albania.”;
Breaking with No10 to demand a national grooming gangs inquiry, he added: “What has happened in our country is a sin and an abomination that no society can tolerate.
“It has led to a demon unleashed inside our body politic and it needs to be exorcised by the public trial and punishment of those who committed the deeds and those who concealed it.”;
Labour lost 199 councillors and were routed on their former ultra safe councils of Durham and Doncaster by Reform on Thursday night.
Pollsters declared it the death of two party politics in Britain.
If Nigel Farage replicated the success at the general election he would become PM, they added.
Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle in Lancs, said: “Make no mistake – this is existential for the Labour Party.”;
Speaking in the aftermath of the grim results, Sir Keir said he will double down and go faster on his plans.
But the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and leader of Labour’s Red Wall Caucus, Jo White, said Sir Keir’s response “is an insult to all those candidates who have worked so hard”;.
Ms White, MP for Bassetlaw in Notts, told The Sun on Sunday: “It is now time to be honest with ourselves and address the issue that has hung like a weight around our shoulders since the early days of this government.
“Thehas now become our poll tax problem.We have lost the pensioner vote.”;
She called for the benefit to be reinstated for all pensioners apart from those who pay the higher income tax level.
Jonathan Brash, Labour MP for Hartlepool, said “serious mistakes have been made”;.
He said: “On and disabled benefits in particular it’s time to recognise the harm those decisions are doing and that they must be corrected.”;
Privately, senior government insiders admit cuts to the winter fuel allowance cost them councils and the – which they lost by just six votes.
One senior insider said: “We know it cost them. They won’t U-turn on it yet – but they might in six months.”;
Sir Keir will try to prove he understands the need to go “harder and faster”; on change by unveiling an immigration white paper in the coming weeks.
No10 wants to wean Britain off sky-high by linking work visas to a requirement to train more Brits in those skills.
Engineering visas are expected to be caught in the crackdown.
A No10 source said: “The British public have been gaslit for far too long.
“Time and again, they have been promised control ofAnd time again, they’ve been failed.
“Our tolerant and decent country was turned into a one-nation experiment in open borders leaving public services and housing creaking under the pressure.
“Keir knows just how angry this makes the public, and rightly so. Decency and respect taken advantage of. That ends now.”;
The source added: “That means a proper strategy to plug the skills gap, so British workers are put first.
“And it means a clear message – if you want to come here, you’ve got to pull your weight. Because Britain isn’t a soft touch country.”;
Cabinet ministers rallied round the PM – insisting he is the man to take onvictorious Reform Party.
A Cabinet minister said: “It is painful when parts of the country that have been with us historically through the ages turn elsewhere.”;
The minister added: “Keir has shown he is adaptable and self critical. He is still in a towering position as a leader.”;
A fresh poll showed voters think party knows what it stands for and has a clear sense of purpose.
And while they do not believe Reform is ready for government they believe the party is better prepared than the Conservatives, according to the survey by Opinium.
