Up until last month, not many Britons would have heard of Catherine West.
But the Australian-born politician, who has been a member of the UK parliament since 2015, certainly made a name for herself on the 9th of May when she called for Sir Keir Starmer to set out a timeline for his resignation.
She also called on her Labour colleagues to challenge Sir Keir, warning that she would stand for the leadership if no one else would.
Ms West later withdrew her threat, after it was reported that Andy Burnham’s allies instructed her that the then-mayor of Greater Manchester didn’t have enough time to put together a viable challenge.
But the first salvo fired in a battle for the leadership is often the most critical and Ms West’s comments, which came after Labour’s disastrous performance at May’s local elections, undermined the PM’s calls for party unity.
When Ms West spoke to the ABC in early June, she explained why she was so eager to spur a leadership challenge.
“I felt coming out of the local elections, which is a bit like [the US] mid-terms for us we did particularly badly and we’ve got three years until the next general election,” she said.
“So I’ve actually got time to pivot now into … focusing on what has become a really big threat electorally to the Labour Party and I think to mainstream politics which is coming from Reform UK and another smaller parties.”
On Monday, Ms West struck a very different tone in a social media post where she praised Sir Keir.
Ms West has lived in London for nearly 30 years. She was born in country Victoria.
