British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told his Cabinet on Tuesday that a move by rebellious Labour MPs to oust him had not crossed the threshold to trigger a leadership contest.
A defiant Mr Starmer warned his top team that the past 48 hours of manoeuvrings had been destabilising for the government.
Earlier, one of his closest aides said Mr Starmer was “listening and talking to colleagues” about his future after scores of Labour MPs revolted against his leadership.
Seventy-five of Labour’s 403 MPs have demanded Mr Starmer stand down after the ruling party’s electoral mauling last week. A split has developed in his Cabinet, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood reportedly urging him to consider his position, while government aides have quit their posts.
Mr Starmer faced a so-called extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, with senior ministers divided over how best to move forwards and concerns among members about plunging the party into a potential leadership contest.
He told ministers that a leadership challenge “has not been triggered” and “the country expects us to get on with governing”. According to a statement released by Downing Street, Mr Starmer told the Cabinet: “As I said yesterday, I take responsibility for these election results and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised.
"The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families. The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered. The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a Cabinet.”
The government's Chief Secretary Darren Jones refused to comment on whether the beleaguered leader should stay on in No 10 Downing Street. While it was conceded that Mr Starmer would be talking to colleagues “about the issues” they have raised, Mr Jones was “not going to get ahead of any decision the Prime Minister may or may not take in the future”.
He repeatedly said Mr Starmer was “listening to colleagues, and he’s talking to colleagues … I can’t say what decision he may or may not take. I think it’s right for any leader to listen to their colleagues, even if they have different views. Obviously he will disagree with those colleagues who say he should resign.”
Mr Starmer’s time in Downing Street has been dogged by an inability to spur growth in the economy and a series of U-turns on key policies such as welfare reform and tax. He also faced questions over his judgment after his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador ended with a criminal investigation over allegations of leaking sensitive information to his friend Jeffrey Epstein, as well as a cost of living crisis that has most recently been exacerbated by the Iran war.
Disastrous local election results last week have now brought his leadership to the brink. In a speech on Monday meant to set out Labour’s response, the Prime Minister said he would prove his doubters wrong and vowed to carry on in office.
But the speech triggered an avalanche of Labour backbenchers publicly calling for him to go, including a number of junior ministerial aides who resigned to do so.
Ms Mahmood is said to have privately called for an orderly transition of power on Monday night.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is widely seen as a potential leadership contender but has publicly denied plans for a tilt at the top job, had not spoken to the Prime Minister as of Monday evening.
'Step down, Starmer'
Some MPs have called for Mr Starmer to set out a timetable for his resignation, hoping that would give time for Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to return to parliament and stand for the leadership. To further his own ambitions he would need to win a by-election to become an MP first.
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is another on the left wing of the Labour Party who could run for the top job, despite outstanding tax issues which caused her to resign from her Cabinet roles last September. In a speech to the Communication Workers Union on Monday, Ms Rayner said a previous decision to block Mr Burnham from returning 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.
Four government aides quit their posts on Monday, citing a loss of confidence in Mr Starmer’s leadership, while others warned his authority was collapsing and called for him to set out a timetable for his departure from No 10.
In a sign of the febrile atmosphere in Westminster on Monday evening, junior health minister Stephen Kinnock said some Cabinet members “may well” call for the Prime Minister to go at Tuesday’s meeting.
“It is possible that members of the Cabinet might do that,” he told the BBC's Newsnight. “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.”
Market reaction
Meanwhile, the pound has been weakened further by the political instability. Stocks on the London market dropped sharply on rising oil prices as the US has remained in deadlock with Iran over a resolution to end the conflict.
Sterling fell 0.5 per cent to $1.35 and was 0.2 per cent lower at €1.15. The FTSE 100 Index dropped more than 1 per cent in opening trading, later settling 95.57 points lower at 10173.86.
Long-term borrowing costs surged, with the yield on 30-year UK government bonds – also known as gilts – jumping as much as 11 basis points to 5.785 per cent in early Tuesday trading, edging back up to within touching distance of the 28-year high recorded last week.
Joe Morris, a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Mr Streeting; Tom Rutland, a PPS to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds; Cabinet Office aide Naushabah Khan; and Melanie Ward, a PPS to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, all quit on Monday evening.
Department for Work and Pensions aide Gordon McKee and Ms Mahmood’s PPS, Sally Jameson, also left their posts, having expressed a loss of confidence in the Prime Minister.
Downing Street did not immediately respond to the resignations, but loyalist MPs David Burton-Sampson, Linsey Farnsworth, Jayne Kirkham, Michael Payne, Tim Roca and Sean Woodcock were appointed to PPS positions later in the evening.
The Guardian reported that Ms Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had spoken to Mr Starmer about his future, while The Times reported a third Cabinet minister had advised him to consider his position.
Speculation over Mr Starmer's future has intensified since Thursday’s elections, in which Labour lost almost 1,500 English councillors, went backwards in Scotland and slumped to third place in its former stronghold of Wales.
In a speech in central London on Monday, Mr Starmer said he took responsibility for the loss but would fight on, and would cast the current political moment as a “battle for the soul” of the UK, warning that if Labour failed, the country would head down “a very dark path”.
Mr Starmer is expected to meet apprentices on Tuesday to talk up the government’s reforms to the system aimed at helping small businesses take on young workers, with training fully funded from August.
The visit is a bid to highlight his promise to tear up the “status quo”, which, he said on Monday, had failed the British people, and underline efforts to put apprenticeships on an equal footing with university degrees.
