Two affiliated trade union leaders call on Starmer to resign as Prime Minister

Trade union leaders have weighed in on the Prime Minister’s future – with two general secretaries calling for Starmer to resign.

Leaders of the Labour-affiliated Fire Brigades Union and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) have called for a leadership contest amid continuing fallout from the Mandelson scandal.

The Prime Minister’s spokesperson has said that Keir Starmer is “upbeat and confident” and said: “The Prime Minister is concentrating on the job in hand. He is getting on with the job of delivering change across the country.”

Speaking to BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, FBU general secretary Steve Wright said: “I think there needs to be a leadership change, and I think MPs need to be calling for that and trigger it.

“I think everybody’s thinking it, and people are just not saying it at the moment.”

READ MORE: Third of Labour members want Starmer to resign over Mandelson scandal – poll

General secretary of the TSSA Maryam Eslamdoust has also joined calls for Keir Starmer to resign, telling The Telegraph: “This self-inflicted crisis by Keir Starmer has left the government on life support and facing the threat of Nigel Farage leading a far-right government in this country.

“Labour MPs cannot stand by and allow that to happen.

“They must now trigger a leadership contest to allow Labour to elect a new leader who can stop the far-right coming to power here like it has in the US.

“There’s no case for waiting until May, given the scale of defeat we are facing at these critical elections. It’s time to elect a new leader.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for rail union ASLEF called on the government to deliver and said: “The government needs to make life better for people in this country and we need a leader who can, and will do that. We need the Labour government to deliver.”

Although Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has been an outspoken critic of the government, the union has so far declined to comment.

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