PRESSURE is growing on Sir Keir Starmer to announce a timetable for his departure from Downing Street as Labour braces for historic losses in this week’s elections.

A group of first-term Labour MPs are believed to be planning to send a letter to the Prime Minister demanding a plan for an early exit after the results roll in.

Labour is facing third-place finishes in both Wales and Scotland and a total loss of as many as 1,800 local authority seats across the country.

Both Reform UK and the Greens are expected to gain at the Labour’s expense across England, with Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party benefitting in their respective nations.

Desperate Communities Secretary Steve Reed, a Labour Together factionalist, demanded that colleagues drop the “psychodrama” of talk about a leadership contest.

“I speak to a lot of my fellow MPs, of course I do, all the time, but also council leaders, and they’re sick and tired of all this psychodrama,” he said.

“We can’t be like the Tories and doomscroll through leaders. It ends in annihilation. We’ve got to focus on the British public, not ourselves.”

Under the circumstances, he is unlikely to be heeded. It is believed that both former deputy premier Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have the support of the required 81 Labour MPs to mount a challenge to Sir Keir, although both appear to want someone else to trigger one.

Downing Street is trying to woo Ms Rayner back into the Cabinet as a “human shield” to protest the fast-sinking premier, but she is unlikely to accede.

Some MPs would prefer to wait until Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the only Labour politician with a positive public rating, is back in the Commons and eligible to stand.

However, there is no guarantee as to when, or even if, that will happen.

The unpopular Prime Minister has remained almost invisible during local election campaigning, presumably in acknowledgement of the damage he would do to Labour candidates.

An analysis by the Telegraph newspaper found he had made just 11 campaign visits over the last two months, as against 71 for Reform boss Nigel Farage and 41 for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

The newspaper cited one senior Labour figure as saying: “He really is toxic. There’s a visceral loathing of him and it’s spread through all the sectors; it’s not just one group.

“He’s just seen as a completely insincere, two-faced person. Starmer has no followers, he only has enemies — it’s incredible.”