Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has brutally shut down an ex-Labour candidate for defending “honest” Sir Keir Starmer amid a looming plot to “oust” the Prime Minister.

Discussing the alleged leadership challenge on GB News, the State of the Nation host clashed with Kevin Craig on the Labour leader’s track record in Government.

Denying any plot to oust Sir Keir, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the reports of an overnight briefing are both “bizarre” and “juvenile”.

Defending the Prime Minister, he added: “I don’t think that’s a helpful or constructive thing to say, I also don’t think it’s true. What I think he is doing is fighting to try and turn the country around from the enormous mess that we’ve inherited on so many fronts.”

Leaping to the defence of Sir Keir, Mr Craig told GB News: “I’ve got a lot of good friends across this large parliamentary Labour Party, and they need to sort of not get deluded about the power of the individual’s own brand in a seat.

“You succeed or fail on basically in 2029, will the British people trust us to run the economy? I think there’s a great chance that they will. Is the NHS going to be better? And I know it’s boring for some whatever, and you call Jacob him the Reverend, but we have there a bloke who is honest and wants to get the job done.

“Any Labour MP who thinks he’ll save their skin by starting to change it, get a grip!”

Sir Jacob responded: “It is unfortunate, though, that he’s had to refer himself to his own efforts. It’s not the approach he took when he was leader of the opposition. The slightest mistake by a Tory, he was saying it was an outrage.

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“The busyness of Government means that these sorts of mistakes will be made, but he was utterly unforgiving when the boot was on the other foot. So why should we forgive him?”

Mr Craig said: “Well, because I would contend, and I understand in the sort of ding dong of politics why you would say that. But I actually think the actual detail of this, which viewers and listeners may or may not look up, is really trivial.

“It’s the ding dong of politics, and you’ve got to, at every stage, hold him to account.”

Weighing in on the debate, Reform UK’s Mayor for Greater Lincolnshire Dame Andrea Jenkyns asked the ex-Labour candidate: “I agree with you that when MPs start believing their own ego and hype, there’s problems in any party.

“But what about the public, though? Because look at the opinion polls, they don’t believe in Starmer and the Labour Government. Would you accept that?”

Mr Craig responded: “I’d say at the moment, Labour’s poll ratings are undeniably low. But I think that we have had trouble getting across a lot of the successes, slow turning around, like the NHS breakfast clubs.”

He added: “We are listening to the public, especially in red wall seats, about immigrants. I mean, we are doing a lot, but in the busy news world, people want it faster.

“And every Labour MP who’s listens to this or sees it, they need to have their head examined if they think that changing the leader elected by this country, albeit on a shallow majority, he has to be given the chance to get the job done and I think things will turn round.”