Sacked junior minister Catherine West calls for Starmer to be replaced by Monday

Catherine West was sacked by Sir Keir Starmer as a junior minister in the Foreign Office. The MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet has now told The Independent she will seek the 80 names needed to trigger a Labour leadership contest if the cabinet does not put forward a replacement for the prime minister by Monday.

West said the cabinet should reorganise themselves and put forward their best communicator to replace the prime minister.

She told The Independent the urgency stemmed from last week's local elections, which delivered cataclysmic results for Labour. "We had cataclysmic election results last week and our response so far does not match the emergency that faces us. I am terrified we will end up with Prime Minister Farage," she said.

West said she would welcome Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner or Bridget Phillipson taking over as leader and prime minister. She told The Independent that the cabinet needs to get into the room, close the door and sort it out between themselves, give Keir a role of some sort because he is very good on international relations, and that there are so many good people not just in the cabinet.

West, who originally comes from Australia, has been in contact with the party leadership over her intentions, including party chair Anna Turley and Bridget Phillipson.

Phillipson will be on the morning media round with West on Sunday. The intervention came after Sir Keir Starmer recruited Gordon Brown and Baroness Harriet Harman to help secure his premiership. Starmer appointed Gordon Brown as his special envoy on global finance and appointed Baroness Harriet Harman as his adviser on violence against women and girls.

Gordon Brown was once described by Tony Blair as "the big clunking fist". Sir Keir Starmer greeted Gordon Brown and Baroness Harriet Harman on the steps of Downing Street on Saturday. An attempt on Friday night to get his cabinet to publicly support him backfired after several senior figures remained silent.

Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper, Shabana Mahmood and Andy Burnham did not publicly endorse Sir Keir Starmer, while Al Carns avoided offering public support. At least eight Labour MPs have publicly demanded that Sir Keir Starmer set a timetable for his departure. " Reform won all 22 available council seats in Wigan.

Reform won 16 out of 17 council seats in the Tameside Council area, which includes Angela Rayner’s constituency. Sir Keir Starmer released a video on social media on Saturday in which he said: "It’s important that we reflect and respond to these results. " He has a major speech planned for Monday.

A source close to Angela Rayner denied speculation that she could launch a leadership bid as early as next week. The local elections took place last week.