'We need a fresh start': Keir Starmer joins calls for general election after Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid resign from Cabinet

It comes after both Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid resigned from Boris Johnson's Cabinet.

The resignations came as the Prime Minister was forced into a humiliating apology over his handling of the Chris Pincher row after it emerged he had forgotten about being told of previous allegations of “inappropriate” conduct.

Rishi Sunak quit as chancellor and Sajid Javid has resigned as health secretary.

Asked by broadcasters if he would support an election if one were called in the next few weeks, Labour leader, Sir Keir said: “Yes. We need a fresh start for Britain. We need a change of government.

“This Government is collapsing, the Tory party is corrupted, and changing one man at the top of the Tory party won’t make any difference, it won’t fix the problems.

“Let’s have a fresh start for Britain, let’s have a real change of Government.”

Following his resignation Mr Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, adding “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

In an incendiary letter, Mr Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their government” but voters now believed Mr Johnson’s administration was neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.

Speaking to Talk TV after the resignations, a Conservative Party vice chair said he too would have to step down from his position.

Bim Afolami, the MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, said: “(After) recent allegations about the former deputy chief whip and other things that have happened over recent weeks, I just don’t think the Prime Minister any longer has, not just my support, but he doesn’t have, I don’t think, the support of the party, or indeed the country any more.

“I think for that reason he should step down.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg meanwhile has said that “losing chancellors is something that happens”.

He said that it is the Prime Minister who appoints Cabinet ministers and is “not someone who is brought down by Cabinet ministers”.