Ministers urge Keir Starmer to consider his position

Pressure on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer escalated sharply on Tuesday, with reports that Cabinet ministers have urged him to weigh his future and a string of government aides walking out, in what has become the most serious threat yet to his leadership.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to have privately argued for an orderly transfer of power last night, after 75 MPs called on Mr Starmer to step aside in the wake of Labour’s punishing election losses last week.

Senior minister Darren Jones said Mr Starmer was hearing out and speaking with those ‌who have ⁠urged him to resign, while insisting it was not yet certain that he would ‌be forced from office.

Asked whether it ⁠was all ‌over for Mr Starmer, Mr Jones told ⁠Times Radio: “No.”

Four government aides resigned from their roles, citing a loss of confidence in Mr Starmer’s leadership, while others warned that his grip on authority was weakening and urged him to lay out a timetable for leaving No 10.

Mr Starmer is due to confront an extraordinary weekly Cabinet meeting this morning, with senior ministers divided over the best route forward and some anxious about pushing the party into a potentially destabilising leadership contest.

The Press Association understands Defence Secretary John Healey told Mr Starmer that a disorderly succession must be avoided and that the government should keep its focus on steering the country through mounting geopolitical and economic risks, rather than turning its energies inward.

Keir Starmer delivered a speech yesterday in which he vowed to ‘prove the doubters wrong’

Illustrating the tense mood in Westminster last night, junior health minister Stephen Kinnock said some Cabinet members “may well” demand that Mr Starmer quit at this morning’s meeting.

“It is possible that members of the Cabinet might do that. I genuinely have no idea at all. What I am simply saying is any one of my colleagues who is potentially thinking of doing that, I just hope they really will take a beat, pause and reflect, and think about the potential that has for the chaos that might be unleashed,” he told BBC Newsnight.

At a press conference yesterday, Mr Starmer said he would prove his “doubters” wrong, even as former minister Catherine West backed away from threats to launch an immediate leadership challenge.

But the speech did little to silence demands from unhappy MPs that he resign or at least announce a timetable for his exit, with calls for him to go continuing after he spoke.

Ms West had earlier said she was prepared to challenge Mr Starmer for the party leadership as soon as yesterday afternoon, in a move designed to force the Cabinet to rally behind a successor for prime minister.

After Mr Starmer made clear he would not “walk away”, the former Foreign Office minister said she would instead seek backing within the party for him to commit to resigning by September.

Watch: Keir Starmer yesterday said he took responsibility for tough election results

It is understood that 80 MPs have now signed a letter organised by Ms West calling on Mr Starmer to take that step, with most having publicly declared that they no longer have confidence in his leadership.

At the same time, Joe Morris, a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and Tom Rutland, a PPS to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, along with Cabinet Office aide Naushabah Khan and Melanie Ward, a PPS to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, all resigned last night.

Department for Work and Pensions aide Gordon McKee and Ms Mahmood’s PPS Sally Jameson also stepped down after saying they had lost confidence in the Prime Minister.

Downing Street did not immediately comment on the departures, but loyalist MPs David Burton-Sampson, Linsey Farnsworth, Jayne Kirkham, Michael Payne, Tim Roca and Sean Woodcock were appointed to PPS posts later in the evening.

The Guardian reported that Ms Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had both discussed Mr Starmer’s future with him, while the Times said a third Cabinet minister had also urged him to consider his position.

Questions over Mr Starmer’s future have intensified since Thursday’s elections, when Labour lost almost 1,500 English councillors, fell back in Scotland and dropped to third place in Wales.

Speaking in central London yesterday, Mr Starmer said he accepted “responsibility” for the losses but insisted he would continue, framing the current political moment as a “battle for the soul” of the UK and warning that if Labour failed, the country would move down “a very dark path”.

He is expected to meet apprentices as he promotes the government’s overhaul of the system, designed to help small businesses hire young apprentices with training fully funded from August.

The appearance is intended to showcase his pledge to rip up the “status quo”, which he said had failed British people, and to reinforce efforts to place apprenticeships on the same footing as university degrees.

A small number of backbenchers rallied behind the prime minister after the speech, with Macclesfield MP Mr Roca and Gedling’s Mr Payne saying Mr Starmer had shown he understood “the scale of the challenge” facing the country.

Mr Streeting, long viewed as a possible leadership contender but publicly insistent that he has no plans to seek the top job, was understood not to have spoken to Mr Starmer by yesterday evening.

But the resignation of his PPS, who called for a “swift” timetable to replace Mr Starmer, along with others regarded as Streeting allies such as Ms Ward, who urged a “rapid process” to choose a new leader, has added to speculation that he could be preparing to enter any contest.

By contrast, allies of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, widely seen as a party favourite to succeed Mr Starmer, are cautious about a fast leadership race because he would first need to contest and win a by-election to return to Westminster as an MP before advancing his ambitions.

In a speech to the Communication Workers Union yesterday, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner – also seen as a potential leadership contender – said the move to block Mr Burnham should be “put right”.

“We as a party have to do better than this and we can only prove we mean our Labour values by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism,” she said