Sir Keir Starmer is facing “an inevitable crisis” at May’s local council and devolved assembly elections which will decide whether he fights the next general election, a Labour grandee has said.

Graham Stringer, a Labour MP for nearly 30 years, declined to guarantee that the Prime Minister will lead his party into the general election, which must be held before summer 2029.

Stringer told Chopper’s Political Podcast today: “I’ve always expected a crisis around the local elections and Scottish and Welsh elections next May, because that is hard and difficult news, more important than polls for MPs and for councillors. Real votes, in real ballot boxes, not going Labour’s way.”

Mr Stringer admitted that it would be referendum on the PM’s leadership, saying: “That’s right. For many of the new MPs who have got majorities of less than 4,000, it’s going to be very difficult for them to see their local councils losing their seats, if they do, with significant votes against, and they will add it up and think, I’m not going to stay here.

“So there will be a crisis point of ‘what do we do now? And it will give some reality to ‘is there a candidate who would be a better Prime Minister than Keir?’.

“So to answer your question directly. Will he be the candidate in the next general election? I think it depends how he deals on what seems like an inevitable crisis.

“If he can’t deal with that, if he can’t convince the Labour Party nationally and in Parliament that he can at least give us a chance in the next general election, then he may well not fight that election.”

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