Cumbrian MPs have delivered their verdicts on whether Prime Minister Keir Starmer should go.
The PM has seen increased pressure in recent days to resign after large-scale electoral losses for Labour across the country at the local elections.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is reported to be mounting a leadership challenge, with over 80 MPs having called for him to go.
Cumbrian MPs have given their thoughts on whether the PM should leave.
Barrow and Furness Labour MP Michelle Scrogham, said change was not the answer and called for more stability.
Ms Scrogham said: “We need to listen to what voters are telling us, and acknowledge that some policies were the wrong choice, but changing a PM is not the answer.
“Like most people I’m incredibly tired of the merry-go-round and constant playing politics.
“I’m regularly out speaking to constituents and I know they share my frustrations about the speed of progress.
“We are just 22 months into the five-year parliamentary term where we have already made progress in delivering on our manifesto pledges.
“We need to get on with the job of delivering the change people want to see.
“What is obvious is that we need stability, not the continuation of the Tories who swapped PMs like underwear. Instability is not in Britain’s interest. Our focus should be dealing with looming security and economic challenges.”
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland & Lonsdale, said: “It appears the writing is on the wall for Keir Starmer and that his time as Prime Minister will soon come to an end.
“At the General Election, the Labour Party promised change. Sadly what they’ve delivered is painfully similar to what we saw under the Conservatives – infighting and broken promises.
“Rather than just changing the person at the top, what we desperately need is a completely new focus on tackling the big issues that our country faces. We cannot continue to see the needs of rural communities like ours in Cumbria seen as an afterthought.
“The next Labour leadership needs to back small businesses, invest in farming, and stop cutting our rural health services.”
Julie Minns, Labour MP for Carlisle, backed Sir Kier.
She said: “Last week’s election results delivered an uncompromising message. The country needs change and people need to see – and feel – it happening.
“We need to work harder if we are to win back trust from a weary electorate.
“We may not have had elections in Cumbria, but I understand people here have the same frustrations which they tell me about in the coffee mornings and surgeries I hold around the constituency.
“Labour has every right to feel proud of the difference it has already started to make in Cumbria and our region, whether that’s improvements in the NHS or help for renters and low-paid workers.
“But people want more. And we get that. We can only deliver that change if we work together. This is no time for a leadership contest.”
Lizzi Collinge, Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale called for Sir Kier to step down.
She said: “I have been taking time over the past week to reflect on the local election results elsewhere in the country, to reflect on our first two years in Government, and of course to speak with my constituents.
“I am immensely proud of the progressive and important legislation we have passed, from the Employment Rights Act to the Water (Special Measures) Act.
“I am also proud of the clear and concerted action we have taken on the most pressing issues of our time: economic stability, clean energy and climate change, national security, and improving the NHS.
“We had a very difficult inheritance from 14 years of destructive Conservative government, and any Prime Minister would have struggled to solve the problems our country faces in two years.
“I also recognise that the Prime Minister has led us through some extremely difficult international situations with skill and I thank him for that.
“However, it is clear to me that the Prime Minister has now lost the confidence of the country.
“And as an MP, my first duty is to my constituents and to my country. It is for this reason that I am now calling on the Prime Minister to step back and arrange an orderly transition to new leadership.
“I believe that Labour values and policies are still the only way to improve our country and we need a Prime Minister who can show the country what progress we have made and can still make.
“Labour don’t offer simplistic slogans, we offer real solutions. Governing a country requires compromise and hard choices, and we’re the only party who faces up to that.
“We also face some opposition that simply operates outside the norms of decency and honesty. I have seen this locally and nationally.
“We need to fight to steer our country away from the terrible future they want, a future riven with division and with policies based on prejudice and ideology, not facts, evidence or positive values.
“I love our country and I love the people in it. I will keep on working to make life better for every person in Morecambe and Lunesdale, and for every person in the UK.”
Penrith & Solway MP Markus Campbell-Savours said earlier this week: “I have listened carefully to the Prime Minister’s speech.
“Sir Keir Starmer is a decent, principled, and kind man. But his leadership is not working, and it is with genuine regret that I say so.
“His position is now untenable, and colleagues should have the courage to say publicly what many have said privately for months.
“Loyalty matters. Loyalty to him, to the party and to each other.
“But today loyalty lies with our elected members across the country and with the 1,500 who lost their seats last week.
“It does not lie in maintaining a course that is not commanding confidence.
“What the party needs now is leadership with a credible vision for the country, a clear sense of direction, purpose, and ambition.
“Those skills exist within our ranks, and I am confident we can find a leader who has them.”
Josh MacAlister, Whitehaven & Workington Labour MP, was approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service for comment, but has not responded so far.
