UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing the most serious internal challenge of his premiership after dozens of Labour MPs, including senior figures, called on him to resign or set out a timetable for his departure.
Starmer told his cabinet on Tuesday that he would not step down, insisting that Labour’s formal process for challenging a leader had not been triggered. “The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,” he said, according to Downing Street. “The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.”
The pressure follows Labour’s poor local and devolved election results last week, when the party lost hundreds of council seats to Reform UK and the Greens, lost ground in Wales and suffered heavy defeats to the Scottish National Party in Edinburgh. The results deepened concerns among Labour MPs over Starmer’s leadership, economic record and political direction.
Reports said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and other senior ministers privately urged Starmer to consider his position or announce an orderly timetable for departure. ITV reported that four ministers, led by Mahmood, went into Number 10 on Monday evening to press the issue, while dozens of backbench MPs publicly demanded that he stand down.
The Guardian reported that several ministers and parliamentary aides had resigned while calling for Starmer to quit, including communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh and Jess Phillips. However, Starmer’s allies argued that opponents had not yet produced the support needed to formally launch a leadership challenge.
Under Labour rules, a leadership contest can be triggered if a challenger secures nominations from 20 percent of Labour MPs. With 403 Labour MPs, that threshold is 81. The Guardian reported that more than 80 MPs had either called for Starmer to resign or set out a timetable, though Downing Street maintains that no formal contest has begun.
Starmer’s authority has also been weakened by months of criticism over the economy, the cost of living and his controversial appointment and dismissal of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner are being discussed among MPs as possible successors, though no formal challenge has been launched. For now, Starmer says he intends to “get on with governing,” but the revolt has exposed deep fractures inside Labour.
