Stop anonymous briefings, show respect, ministers tell Labour MPs

Two cabinet ministers warned Labour colleagues on Monday against damaging anonymous briefings as the party prepares for a likely leadership contest, arguing that waging factional war in public disrespects voters.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds made the comments as Labour MPs gathered late Monday for the weekly parliamentary Labour party meeting.

A series of anonymous briefings have emerged since Labour’s poor results in Scottish and Welsh parliament elections and English council elections, often attributed to “allies” or “supporters” of leader Keir Starmer or to potential successors such as Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham.

Cooper said she spent the weekend meeting former Labour councillors in her West Yorkshire constituency who lost their seats on 7 May, adding that she wanted “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 reminded Labour MPs to support each other rather than leak damaging information.

“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.”

Recent anonymous briefings include Starmer supporters saying Streeting had “bottled” a leadership bid, a remark describing 2024-intake MPs as “erratic” and inexperienced, and another calling Streeting “a recently crashed-out backbencher”.

Many anonymous quotes originate from officials, advisers or other non-MP sources, not only from the legislators themselves.