Catherine West backs down from Starmer challenge but urges him to go by September

Backbench MP calls prime minister’s speech ‘too little, too late’ but stops short of moving to stand against him herself

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Catherine West, the Labour MP who announced a challenge to Keir Starmer’s leadership, has changed course and said she instead wants the prime minister to set a timetable of September for his departure.

West, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a former Foreign Office minister, announced on Saturday that she would seek the gather the 81 Labour MPs’ names needed to formally challenge Starmer, while arguing that this was just a device to tempt others to stand, and that she did not wish to take over.