Council leader Una O’Halloran and a healthy turnout of Islington councillors and members in Liverpool

DAME Emily Thornberry has called on voters to give the Labour government more time to fix the “profoundly broken” system they inherited from the Tories ahead of May’s local elections in Islington.

The Islington South and Finsbury MP was speaking to the Tribune at the Labour conference here in Liverpool, amid deep plummeting poll ratings and talk of a possible leadership challenge at the top.

Some members were privately predicting that prime minister Sir Keir Starmer might have to stand down if the local elections in London and elsewhere deliver damaging results.

Dame Emily said there was a “nervousness” laced through the atmosphere at conference om Merseyside ­­­– due to the gloomy polling which has repeatedly put Labour trailing Reform UK and shown Mr Starmer’s public popularity falling.

She said: “We’re nervy because of the polls and concern about how well particularly Reform is doing and what our response to that out to be. It will always happen. Politicians will tell you we don’t pay attention to the polls, we pay attention the polls.

Emily Thornberry was typically animated in conference interview with the Tribune

“And so there is a nervousness around, and we have elections in May which are very serious, and we have to make sure that we do well.

“But obviously in the end the most serious election will be the general election and we absolutely cannot hand our country over to Reform.”

The common complaints from disaffected Labour voters is that the government of 14 months has failed to improve lives in any meaningful way since coming to power.

Instead, there are claims that some vulnerable residents feel worse off after cuts to the winter fuel allowance and disability support, and a refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap.

But Dame Emily, who briefly mounted a campaign to be Mr Starmer’s deputy before withdrawing from the race to succeed Angela Rayner last month, said Labour was being judged too harshly.

She said: “I think people’s lives are better, but not enough. I don’t think in 14 months you can fix 14 years. I know people think a lot of the Labour party and expect a Labour government to be able to achieve a great deal, and we certainly want to, but we do need a bit more time.”

Councillors say they swam in the River Mersey

She conceded, however, that her government had failed to communicate convincingly with the public so people could see a clear vision for the country.

“I think there’s a little bit of measuring us differently to other political parties,” she said.

“They kind of expect the Tories to be useless, but they don’t expect us to be. Which is good, because we’re not – but what we’re not good enough at is explaining what our plan is.”

The potential victims of national dissatisfaction with the Labour government could be local councillors ­with the Town Hall elections now looming into view.

But Islington Council leader Councillor Una O’Halloran said she would not blame any losses on the government.

“The electorate goes like that, there’s cycle. You’ve been here a long time, [people think] maybe someone else should,” she said. “People did that with the Lib Dems.”

Drinks in the hotel conference bar

It is understood that internal polling shared with Labour councillors at an “away day” in Caledonian Road last month forecast the loss of only eight seats: three to the Greens, two to the Lib Dems, and three to a party set up by independent Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Such a result would keep Labour in power locally, still with a healthy majority.

Cllr O’Halloran said she had not discussed the new party with Mr Corbyn, but they continue to have a “good working relationship”.

The leader added that it was “his choice” to go his own direction, but criticised the project for not having a clear programme.

She said: “What is it standing for? What is Your Party? Is it not the Islington SWP? I don’t know what they stand for, I don’t know what he’s promising people.”

Supporting Cllr Shreya Nanda’s Yimby event

Cllr O’Halloran also hit out at the Lib Dems, who she said were trying to whitewash their record from the time they ran the council.

She said: “I think they’re just using some kind of ‘we’re back’ sort of thing, but people need to remember what they did. They sold off Finsbury Town Hall. They sold off Caxton House.”

The looming threat of cuts under the new “Fair Funding Formula”, which the has been predicted will see inner London boroughs lose out on millions of pounds of government funding, has sparked fear amongst Islington councillors about the likelihood of more budget cuts.

But Cllr O’Halloran refused to condemn the government move, saying that they are trying to distribute money fairly.

She added: “I still think we’re better off with a Labour government than we ever were with a Tory government.”