‘It’s what happened to my Party!’ Richard Holden draws parallels between Keir Starmer leadership crisis and Tory collapse

Richard Holden has drawn parallels between the leadership crisis engulfing Keir Starmer and the final days of the Conservative Party in Government.

The Tory Shadow Housing Secretary said Labour had “lost track of the big picture” in a similar manner to his own Party as it limped towards electoral oblivion in 2024.

Mr Holden spoke to GB News after at least 72 MPs called for the Prime Minister to resign, and select Cabinet Ministers demanded a timeline for his exit.

“It's pretty clear that Keir Starmer has shown a total inability to really understand where the country is,” the top Tory slammed.

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He also argued the Prime Minister had failed to “understand the real big challenges facing the country as well”.

“It's what happened to my party,” Mr Holden explained.

The Tories suffered a crushing General Election defeat in 2024, following a rapid succession of Prime Ministers and political misfires.

“They lost track of the big picture, lost track of those values which made us come into politics.

“We've started to reestablish that under Kemi. We've still got a long way to go.

“I think Labour are still on that downward loop,” the Shadow House Secretary reckoned.

“They're not thinking about the good of the country, and I think that's what I would urge every Labour MP to do.

“Think about what the direction of the direction of the country needs to take, and also the policies to get us there, because that's what's most important at the moment,” he stressed.

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Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are thought to have called for an “orderly transition of power” following Labour's bruising local election defeats.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Defence Secretary John Healey have also approached Sir Keir to arrange a “responsible, dignified and orderly” departure.

“I fear what is going through the minds of many of those in the cabinet today will be what's in my personal interest.

“The country needs clear leadership with clear principles, and I do not think we are seeing that at the moment from this crop of people jostling for position,” the Shadow Housing Secretary said.

To that end, Mr Holden suggested the “real danger is instability”.

“If Keir Starmer stays, I think the instability could be even greater than if he goes, because the truth is that he's clearly lost control of his parliamentary party.”

He feared that backbenchers could use their leverage over the Prime Minister to “force him to change position” on key policies.

As such, Mr Holden called for “a change to somebody who understands that the country has been heading in the wrong direction under this Labour Government”.

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