Catherine West has threatened to launch a management bid that would topple the prime minister.
The Labour MP issued a momentous intervention after her get together’s drubbing within the elections this week. On Saturday afternoon, West known as on the cupboard to “reorganise themselves” and put ahead their “finest communicator” to exchange Starmer. Talking to BBC Information within the wake of this week’s elections, the Labour MP and former Overseas Workplace stated she was placing senior ministers “on discover”.
West stated: “My most popular choice is for the cupboard to do a reshuffle inside itself, the place there’s loads of expertise, and for Keir to be given a distinct function, which he would possibly take pleasure in, maybe a world function.”
If West succeeds in smoking out a extra distinguished management rival – be they Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting or one other determine – it could not be the primary time she has performed a job in bringing down a major minister.
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An intervention from West throughout a December 2021 session of prime minister’s questions was later central to the Home of Commons privileges committee inquiry into whether or not Boris Johnson misled parliament over “Partygate”.
On 8 December 2021, West requested the prime minister: “Will the prime minister inform the Home whether or not there was a celebration in Downing Road on 13 November?”
Johnson responded: “No, however I’m certain that no matter occurred, the steering was adopted and the foundations have been adopted always.”
In January 2022, following the publication of the Sue Grey report into Partygate, West requested whether or not Johnson had “inadvertently” misled this Home in response to her earlier query.
The scope of the privileges committee inquiry, which the commons agreed to in April 2022, explicitly referred to Johnson’s reply to West in December 2021. In giving proof to the privileges committee, Johnson accepted that the Home was misled however denied doing so intentionally.
As a part of its conclusions, the privileges committee discovered: “Mr Johnson misled the Home when he stated on 1 December 2021 that each one Steerage was adopted utterly in No. 10, when he stated on 8 December 2021 that the Guidelines and Steerage have been adopted always”.
The committee finally really helpful that Johnson be suspended from the Home of Commons for 90 days. Nonetheless, shortly earlier than the publication of the report, Johnson introduced his resignation as an MP.
West is the Labour MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, having first been elected to parliament for the predecessor seat of Hornsey and Wooden Inexperienced on the 2015 common election.
Within the 2024 common election, West gained 28,535 votes, representing 58.7% of the vote. The Inexperienced Get together candidate, Fabio Vollono, obtained 7,060 votes (14.5%), whereas the Liberal Democrat candidate, Daybreak Barnes, secured 6,099 votes (12.5%). West was duly elected with a majority of 21,475 votes.
West was appointed as a commerce envoy to Pakistan in January 2026. Appointed by the commerce secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting international funding. An envoy’s duties usually contain main commerce delegations, lobbying host governments on market entry points, and constructing relationships with abroad companies.
West can also be a member of the Home of Commons Treasury choose committee (since October 2025) – the committee tasked with scrutinising His Majesty’s Treasury and authorities coverage on taxation and public spending.
West served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Indo-Pacific from July 2024 to September 2025. She left this function as a part of Starmer’s 2025 shadow ministerial reshuffle.
Previous to the 2024 common election, which noticed Labour returned to energy after 14 years in opposition, West served as shadow minister for Asia and the Pacific (2021-2024), shadow minister for Europe and the Americas (2020-2021), shadow minister for sport (2020), and shadow minister for international and commonwealth affairs (2015-2017).
West was dismissed from the frontbench in June 2017 for voting towards the Labour whip on an modification supporting UK membership of the European Union single market.
West was a member of the Home of Commons international affairs committee (2019-2019), the committees on arms export controls (2017-2019), and the worldwide commerce committee (2017-2019).
Earlier than coming into parliament, West served as a Labour councillor for Tollington ward on Islington London Borough Council from 2002 to 2014. She was chief of the council from 2010 to 2013.
West was one among 22 Labour MPs who nominated Emily Thornberry for the get together’s management in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the get together’s defeat within the 2019 common election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats within the Home of Commons since 1935.
Thornberry, then the shadow international secretary, was one among 5 candidates to achieve the second stage of the competition. Nonetheless, she was eradicated from the race on 15 February 2020 after failing to safe the required 33 nominations from Constituency Labour Events (CLPs) or three affiliated teams. This left Keir Starmer, Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey, and Lisa Nandy because the three candidates on the ultimate membership poll.
West was one among 36 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the get together’s management in June 2015. She could have been a part of the group of MPs who lent their nominations to make sure Corbyn, a veteran backbencher, reached the brink of 35 required to seem on the poll, desiring to “broaden the controversy.” Following Corbyn’s landslide victory with 59.5% of the vote, a number of of those MPs expressed remorse.
In March 2016, West was labelled as “core group plus” by the Corbyn management in a leaked record which categorised Labour MPs by their perceived loyalty. This label recommended the Corbyn management considered West as a dependable supporter.
West supported Stay within the 2016 Brexit referendum, and due to this fact agreed with the overwhelming majority of her constituents, 75% of whom additionally voted to Stay.
In February 2017, West voted towards the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Invoice. The laws empowered the prime minister to inform the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the method set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the invoice by 498 votes to 114 at second studying. In voting towards the invoice, West defied the get together whip – one among 47 Labour MPs to take action.
West was a signatory to a 2017 assertion issued by the Labour Marketing campaign for Free Motion – a gaggle established by Labour members and activists to advocate for the retention and extension of free motion rights following the UK’s vote to depart the European Union. On the time, Labour’s official place was that free motion would finish on the level of Brexit in March 2019.
In the course of the 2019 common election marketing campaign, West was one among 193 Labour candidates to signal the anti-Brexit “Stay pledge”, drawn up by the marketing campaign group Stay Labour.
The pledge said: “Labour is dedicated to a confirmatory referendum, to provide the ultimate say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to marketing campaign to Stay within the EU.”
West voted in favour of the Starmer authorities’s flagship welfare invoice at second studying. The vote got here after ministers agreed to vital concessions to keep away from defeat by way of a mass revolt of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.
West voted in favour of the Terminally Ailing Adults (Finish of Life) Invoice, higher often known as the assisted dying invoice, at second studying (November 2024) and third studying (June 2025). On the third studying of the Terminally Ailing Adults (Finish of Life) Invoice in June 2025, West didn’t report a vote.
West voted towards a authorities movement calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The movement, which was handed by 472 votes to 117, dedicated the UK to developing a brand new fleet of submarines to hold the nation’s nuclear weapons. Labour was cut up over the difficulty with 140 of its 230 MPs going towards chief Jeremy Corbyn and backing the movement.
West voted towards a authorities movement to increase UK airstrikes towards Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The movement, which was handed by 397 votes to 223 after a ten-hour debate within the Home of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes towards Isis targets in Syria.
Born Catherine Elizabeth West in Mansfield, Victoria, Australia on 14 September 1966, she holds twin British and Australian citizenship.
West grew up in Sydney. She studied fashionable languages and social work on the College of Sydney.
She moved to the UK in 1998 and gained a grasp’s diploma in Chinese language research from the College of Oriental and African Research (SOAS), College of London.
West later labored as a social employee in Australia. She additionally labored as a caseworker for Labour MP David Lammy.
West is married to Colin Sutherland, co-director of the London College of Hygiene and Tropical Medication’s Malaria Centre. They’ve a daughter and a son.
She is a Quaker and speaks 5 languages together with Mandarin. She developed her Mandarin while educating English as a second language in Nanjing, China.
West is the great-great-niece of actor Italia Conti.
