Labour ministers warn against damaging anonymous briefings amid leadership speculation

Two cabinet ministers have warned Labour colleagues against damaging anonymous briefings as the party prepares for a probable leadership contest, arguing it is disrespectful to voters to wage a factional war in public.

The comments by Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, and Jonathan Reynolds, the chief whip, came as Labour MPs gathered late on Monday for the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party.

There has been a volley of briefings since Labour’s terrible results in elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English councils, often attributed to “allies” or “supporters” of Keir Starmer or those with hopes of replacing him, such as Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham.

Cooper began by saying she had spent the weekend meeting former Labour councillors in her West Yorkshire constituency who had lost their seats on 7 May “to say sorry to them that they had to deal with national issues and problems in what should have been a local campaign”.

She said: “We need to deal with the aftermath of that, and there will be serious debates within our party about how we respond and how lessons are learned. But I would also say, based on nearly 30 years in parliament, that the way in which we debate matters.

“When it is being reported that ‘the things Labour people are saying about each other are unprintable’, I would just say, frankly, I don’t care who you are in our party, and what you think the answer is for the future, we treat each other with respect. And above all we show respect to people across the country who rely on us to keep focusing on the things that matter most to them.”

Speaking at the same event, Reynolds said he wanted to remind fellow Labour MPs that they should support each other, rather than brief damagingly.

“I just want to say, whatever else is going on, we are the government,” he said. “Our first duty, our first responsibility, is to do the work, to be responsible, to understand why we do everything we do, and that is our duty to our constituents, but it is also our duty each other.

“I just wanted to highlight that in terms of some of the comments and exchanges I’ve seen between colleagues in the past few days. Let us never forget, please, why we are here and who we are here to serve.”

Examples of anonymous briefings in recent days include supporters of Starmer saying Streeting had “bottled” a leadership bid; one that referred to 2024-intake MPs as “erratic” and inexperienced; and another calling Streeting “a recently crashed-out backbencher”.

By no means all the anonymous quotes come from MPs, with many originating from officials, advisers or others.