British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will chair a cabinet meeting after weathering fresh calls from within Labour to resign, as his top ministers moved quickly to close ranks and project stability at the heart of government.
The routine session follows a day of turbulence set off when Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar urged Starmer to step down over the fallout from the Peter Mandelson controversy. Sarwar is the most senior Labour figure to demand the prime minister’s resignation, warning the “distraction” from Downing Street risked harming Labour’s chances of unseating the Scottish National Party in May’s Holyrood elections.
- Advertisement -
Despite the intervention, the immediate danger to Starmer’s leadership appeared to recede. At a packed meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster on Monday evening, a defiant Starmer told MPs, “I’ve won every fight I’ve ever been in,” according to people present. The show of support from senior ministers and the lack of a coordinated push by MPs to depose him suggested the threat has ebbed, at least for now.
Starmer is expected to press ahead with a rapid reshaping of his Downing Street operation. He told MPs he wanted a more “open and inclusive” approach, signaling both a shift in tone and a recalibration of his inner circle. In recent days he promoted senior aides Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson to serve as joint acting chiefs of staff following the weekend departure of Morgan McSweeney.
The overhaul is still in motion. Starmer must appoint a new communications chief after the resignation of Tim Allan on Monday. Separately, the Guardian reported that cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, the U.K.’s top civil servant, is expected to leave his post in the coming days. No official timetable has been set, but the moves underscore a period of churn across the top tiers of No. 10 and Whitehall.
From across the aisle, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch joined calls for Starmer to quit, writing in the Daily Telegraph that he had “proved incapable of doing the things a prime minister needs to do.” Her criticism adds pressure from the opposition as Labour seeks to steady its message and maintain focus on governing.
For now, Starmer’s allies argue the prime minister has contained the immediate crisis and retained control. The cabinet meeting is intended to reinforce that message, with ministers likely to emphasize delivery on domestic priorities while the staffing changes bed in.
Starmer is also set to reengage on the international stage. With the cabinet business addressed, he is expected to travel to Germany at week’s end for the Munich Security Conference, where concern about the future of the transatlantic alliance is likely to dominate discussions. The trip offers an opportunity to pivot from internal party management to foreign policy and defense at a moment of heightened geopolitical scrutiny.
The coming days will test whether the combination of internal backing, personnel changes and a reset in No. 10 can draw a line under the row linked to the Mandelson controversy. Much will depend on whether Labour figures in London and Edinburgh can align ahead of the Holyrood campaign, and whether further resignations or departures complicate Starmer’s attempt to reframe his leadership.
For now, the prime minister remains in post, his cabinet intact and his schedule unchanged — a signal, his allies hope, that the government intends to move on.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
