Starmer brings in Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to ease pressure on him to resign

Keir Starmer has brought in Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisersin a move to ease the mounting pressure on the prime minister to resign after the disastrous election results for Labour.

Brown, the former prime minister and long-serving chancellor under Tony Blair, has been made Starmer’s envoy on global finance, with a brief to advise on financial partnerships to help with defence-related investments, particularly with Europe.

Harman, who was Labour’s deputy leader under Brown, will be the prime minister’s adviser on women and girls, focusing on tackling violence and improving economic opportunities.

While the roles are part-time and unpaid, there is deliberate symbolism in Starmer gathering Labour heavyweights around him as he battles to save his job, particularly with the optics of Brown being pictured with him at Downing Street on Saturday morning.

Harriet Harman was Labour’s deputy leader under Gordon Brown. Photograph: International Pool/PA

With the bulk of the votes now counted from Thursday’s series of elections, Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors across England, shedding support to Reform UK and the Greens in traditional heartlands.

In Wales, the party lost power for the first time, plummeting to just nine Senedd seats behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, while also losing ground in the Scottish parliament.

While none of Starmer’s cabinet have yet moved, other Labour MPs have called on him to set a date to hand over the leadership, including Clive Betts, the long-serving Sheffield South East MP, and Debbie Abrahams, for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

Abrahams told the BBC on Saturday morning she hoped Starmer would “always put the country first” given the electoral threat from Reform.

“We have to recognise the dangers that we’re in now, that on this trajectory it doesn’t look good.” Asked how quickly he should consider departing, Abrahams said: “I think it is a matter of months.”

In a post on X, Tony Vaughan, the Labour MP for Folkestone who was first elected in 2024, said there “must be an orderly transition of leadership well before the local elections next year”.