Starmer should go before next election, says Welsh Labour MP

A senior Welsh Labour MP has said Sir Keir Starmer should not lead the party into the next general election.

Ruth Jones, who chairs the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, said the prime minister had done a "brilliant job" but had made "a lot of mistakes".

Labour suffered a bruising set of elections across Britain on Thursday - it was decimated in last week's Senedd election by Plaid Cymru, bringing to a close a century of winning elections in Wales.

Sir Keir is facing pressure from within his party to quit but vowed to prove his doubters wrong at a press conference on Monday.

Meanwhile a Labour MP has told BBC Wales that the Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens should resign.

The MP, who did not wish to be named, said: "I don't think it's right that Eluned takes full responsibility. I think the Welsh Secretary should also take some responsibility, be held accountable and resign."

Stevens has been approached for comment.

In an article for Walesonline, Stevens accused the Welsh government of having been "distracted by causes that were miles away from the bread-and-butter issues that people care about the most" and said Plaid's victory was a "rebuke of our own performance".

"People are rightly cross about the rollout of 20mph speed restrictions and public money being spent on tree planting in Uganda when we weren't getting the basics right," she said.

Jones, MP for Newport West and Islwyn, told Radio Wales Breakfast: "I think we need him to set out the timetable for when he is going to stand down – not yet, not in a rush, not in a hasty way.

"He's done a brilliant job, he's been there six years, he's got us in, after one term in the wilderness, he's got us a massive majority."

But she added: "He has made a lot of mistakes and he has U-turned obviously.

"He has listened to us which is great but some of these things like the welfare reforms that they were trying to bring in which we tried to block, the winter fuel payments, which we've now returned to, and the appointment of Peter Mandelson, I've been door knocking over the last several months and that was coming up on the door such a lot.

"He's brilliant on the international stage but he's not cutting through on the doorstep as a leader with charisma."

Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, disagreed with his colleague.

"We have seen under the Conservatives the carousel of chaos with all sorts of different prime ministers and reshuffles, the change and instability," he said.

"The public got truly sick and tired of that and I think what we need to do is perhaps focus less on single personalities and more on the politics of this and the policies."

But the junior UK minister said that Sir Keir had made "serious mistakes", including cutting the winter fuel allowance "right at the beginning".

"There was too much focus on repair and not enough focus on renewal and giving people a sense of hope," he said.

The MP said Labour would hold Plaid to account in government, but said Westminster ministers would "engage productively with Plaid Cymru".

Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts MP said: "The prime minister is in denial.

"He can lecture us about what a Labour government is and should be, but the public has seen through his empty words."