SIR KEIR STARMER is under increasing pressure from both sides of the Labour Party to offer a “bold alternative” to Tory rule after last week’s disastrous council elections in England.

Labour’s left called on the party leader to learn from US President Joe Biden and work with socialist MPs and trade unions to develop the “popular policies needed to rebuild support across the country.”

Ed Miliband, who led Labour in opposition between 2010 and 2015, said that the party needs to be “bolder,” while former prime minister Tony Blair complained that Sir Keir “lacks a compelling economic message.”

The Labour leadership has been under siege since the Hartlepool by-election defeat and the loss of control of Durham council for the first time in more than a century.

The setbacks were followed by a botched reshuffle as Sir Keir attempted to reassert his control over the party, with calls for a leadership challenge growing louder.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner was sacked from her position as party chairwoman on Saturday, only to then be given a promotion as shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster after Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham joined those saying that they could not support Sir Keir’s treatment of her. 

Ahead of a rally organised by the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs last night, group secretary Richard Burgon attacked the influence of former New Labour adviser Peter Mandelson, who has been working informally with the leader’s team.

He said: “Our party already has the popular policies needed to rebuild our support.

“The leadership needs to start championing these popular policies, as [Sir Keir] said he would when standing for leader.

“It should learn from Joe Biden and reject the advice of Peter Mandelson, who seems more interested in fighting the battles of the 1990s than meeting 21st-century challenges.”

Mr Miliband, who Sir Keir restored to the front benches as shadow business secretary, said that the leadership needed to be “bolder” in saying how it was going to make the country less unfair, unequal and unproductive.

Mr Blair said that the leader was “struggling to break through with the public” and described last week’s elections as “a major setback.”

He advised Sir Keir to debate cultural issues “urgently and openly” in order to seize the agenda from the Tories.

His immediate successor, Gordon Brown, claimed that the leadership needed more time to connect with voters after the pandemic.