Labour MPs have put pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to come out with a stronger stance on immigration amid concerns Nigel Farage could smash through the Red Wall. stance on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), saying quitting the group should be "on the table".
Starmer, who locked horns with Farage over immigration at Prime Minister's Questions, is having to contend with nervy backbenches ahead of this week's Local Elections.
Reform UK is predicted to win between 400 and 450 council seats this week, with eyes also turning to tomorrow's Runcorn & Helsby by-election.
Meanwhile, Labour is only expected to win around 280, representing little change from its abysmal performance in 2021.
Keir Starmer has been handed a warning by some of his own MPs
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One MP told The Telegraph Reform was "riding the crest of a wave", adding: "In my constituency, the number one issue is tackling immigration.
"People need to see the boats being halted and the numbers coming down, and the whole system functioning much more effectively.
Graham Stringer, the Brexit-backing Labour MP for Blackley & Middleton South, said: "If the results are as bad as predicted on Thursday, the Labour Party mustn’t come out and say it’s a question of just communicating our policies better.
"Most of all, we need to take control of the borders. If that means renegotiating or changing our international obligations, then we need to do that. But we cannot continue to have open borders because of laws passed in the early 1950s."
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Labour MP Sir Graham Stringer
GB NewsWhen asked if leaving the ECHR should be an option, Stringer said: "Certainly. Either modifying or leaving it."
Sir Stephen Houghton, who runs Barnsley borough council, also criticised the Prime Minister, pointing at the only Labour-held council up for election, Doncaster.
"Reform comes along and says, 'well, the problem is migration', where the problem clearly isn’t migration," he told The Telegraph.
"Investment is needed in those places to bring them up to an economic standard and secondly, in the short term, we need to do things to help them with the cost of living, because these are deprived communities on low incomes and even if they are working, life is a struggle. The Government’s capital investment strategy cannot just focus on big cities."
Sir John Curtice has issued a warning to the two main parties
GB NEWSTop polling guru Sir John Curtice has also warned that support for the main two parties appears to be "fragmenting" with the local elections being more open than ever.
Writing for The Telegraph, Curtice cautioned that while the main threat to the Tories remains Reform UK, the challenge to Labour is more wide ranging.
He said: "The party’s losses to the Greens and to the Liberal Democrats are almost as big as those to Reform.
"Its grip on the coalition of voters that helped it secure a landslide majority last year, many of them unsure about Labour’s ability to deliver either economic growth or speedy improvement to the health service, is being eroded from all directions."
