Labour is facing such a drubbing at the May local elections that Keir Starmer will be forced from office, union leaders predicted on Thursday.
Unite boss Sharon Graham said the party faced being ‘decimated’, with the Prime Minister likely to be booted out shortly afterwards, while Maryam Eslamdoust of the TSSA said Labour was ‘running out of time under Keir Starmer’.
She added that he was ‘sleepwalking towards huge losses in May’s elections’. The warnings underline fears in Downing Street that the elections on May 7 will be the trigger for a full-scale leadership challenge.
Allies of Angela Rayner described the elections as a ‘moment of peril’ for the Premier and suggested that she would have resolved her tax affairs in time to launch a leadership bid.
The elections will see 5,000 council seats contested as well as the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales.
Polls suggest Labour could lose 1,700 council seats, surrendering three-quarters of those it is defending. In Wales, where Labour has ruled since devolution began, the party is fighting to avoid coming third – and the situation is little better in Scotland.
Ms Graham said ministers were set to pay the price for failing to address the needs of working-class voters.
‘I think after the May elections there will be a move to change leader because I think Labour are going to pretty much be decimated in those elections,’ she said.
Pictured: Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds a call with Emmanuel Macron, President of France and Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO in 10 Downing Street, 19 March., 2026
‘I don’t think that they understand themselves how bad that will be – what anger is out there about the fact that they haven’t backed workers, the fact they have to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing things that, quite frankly, we would expect a Labour government to do – for example, have a wealth tax.
‘It’s not radical. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that that’s the sort of thing we need to be looking at when the gap between the rich and the poor is as wide as it is.’
Speculation about a potential leadership challenge has intensified this week following a dramatic intervention from Ms Rayner.
In a speech to Labour’s Mainstream group on Tuesday night, she took a thinly-veiled swipe at Sir Keir’s leadership.
The former deputy prime minister warned that Labour was ‘running out of time’ to deliver the change it promised, despite having been in office for less than two years.
She said that Labour was ‘at its best when we are bold’, warning that the party had given the impression it ‘represented the establishment, not working people. At worst, we became it.’
Ms Rayner said that ‘the very survival of the Labour Party is at stake – as a party and a movement we cannot hide, we cannot go through the motions in the face of decline. We are running out of time.’
Ms Rayner was forced to quit the Cabinet last year after underpaying £40,000 in stamp duty on a luxury £800,000 flat in Hove, more than 250 miles from her Manchester constituency.
Allies say she is close to resolving matters with HM Revenue and Customs. She is reported to have earned around £100,000 from speaking engagements in the last six months, leaving her well-placed to pay any fine.
