Keir Starmer Slammed By Sadiq Khan In Wake Of By-Election Humiliation

Sadiq Khan has launched an outspoken attack on Keir Starmer in the wake of Labour’s humiliating by-election defeat in Gorton and Denton.

The London mayor said the party and the government must “fundamentally rethink its approach” after coming third behind the Greens and Reform UK.

Writing in The Observer, he said: “Many people who voted Labour in July 2024 are now angry and frustrated.

“They are impatient to see the change promised at the last general election, including better public services and a growing economy, and they want a Labour government that shares their values.

“People need to know what this Labour government really stands for and be able to believe that it still holds true to the core beliefs the party was established to promote.”

Accusing the PM of taking taking “progressive voters for granted”, Khan criticised his approach to Brexit, immigration and Gaza.

Khan also took aim at Starmer’s suggestion that voters in Gorton and Denton had fallen for the “extremism” of the Green Party.

“Many share our values and hopes for the country but are disappointed with the government,” he said. “Calling them extreme will only turn more people away.”

However, the mayor insisted he was not joining the calls from many in the Labour Party for Starmer to resign – but said there needed to be “real change and a vision that provides hope for the future, not doom and gloom”.

Meanwhile, Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell also took a thinly-veiled swipe at Starmer’s decision to block Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from being the party’s by-election candidate, insisting he “probably would have” won the seat.

She said voters “see in him someone who is on their side, someone who is delivering those Labour values and those Labour policies”.

Powell added: “We have to draw on that, make use of Andy Burnham, but also draw on that and reflect on how we could do that better nationally and better as a Government.

“And I know from talking to Keir many, many times over recent weeks, before this by-election and since, that that is something he is very focused on doing.”