Zia Yusuf has called for Sir Keir Starmer to step down while an “absolute dumpster fire” tears through his party over the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The Reform bigwig further demanded a snap General Election to be called following the Prime Minister’s possible future resignation, with Sir Keir clinging to the steps of Downing Street for the time being.
On GB News, Mr Yusuf ripped into Sir Keir with a wry smile, saying: “After a great deal of soul searching this weekend, Keir Starmer is honourably decided to throw his chief of staff under the bus.
“He said he was not in charge of the vetting process. And therefore, once again, you go back to the point that Keir Starmer himself was responsible.
“All of this is downstream from the absolute dumpster fire of the entire Peter Mandelson situation and his connections with Epstein, which were already well known and common knowledge.
“Keir Starmer continues to basically squat in No10 Downing Street. He clearly has no mandate,” Reform’s policy frontman blasted.
Mr Yusuf demanded a General Election if a new Labour leader were to be catapulted into No10
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Current polling places Labour between 16 and 18 per cent despite Sir Keir having a “walloping” majority in the Commons with 404 MPs, mimicking a landslide as large as Sir Tony Blair’s in 1997.
Now, with backbench backlash impacting Whitehall policy and his right-hand man resigning, the Prime Minister is “extremely isolated” on Downing Street, Mr Yusuf said.
He told the People’s Channel: “He’s lost the confidence of his own MPs. He’s definitely lost the confidence of the country.
“Whoever replaces him, whether it’s Rayner or Mad Ed Miliband, I think it will sadly be Mad Ed Miliband who replaces him.
Ms Rayner is believing to be looking to boot Sir Keir out of No10
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“There is certainly no mandate for that sort of far-left agenda. And that’s why I keep saying, in order for this country, I think, to have any form of cohesion in terms of Government.
“Not only will Starmer resign, but he must call a General Election.”
So far, John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Nadia Whittome and Neil Duncan-Jordan are leading the charge, explicitly calling for Sir Keir to step down.
But, with a change of leadership, Mr Yusuf’s cries for an election mimics the very same cries from leadership hopeful Ms Rayner, who called for a national contest every time the Tories swapped out leaders.
After Rishi Sunak was elected as leader, the MP demanded a General Election, saying: “Rishi Sunak has been crowned by Tory MPs. It’s a coronation not an election.
“All without saying a single word about what he’d do as Prime Minister to address this Tory crisis. He has no mandate and the British people had no say.”
The British political system functions under FPTP (first-past-the-post) whereby the electorate is designed to cast their ballot for their individual MP to represent the constituency in Westminster, rather than voting for a party to catapult an individual leader into No10.
Each party, such as Labour and the Conservatives, hold internally democratic elections to select their leader.