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Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain appeared to have staved off an immediate challenge to his leadership after a high-stakes cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning. But he remained in dire political straits as a rising number of his party’s lawmakers and at least three junior ministers demanded that he announce a plan to resign.
At the cabinet meeting, Mr. Starmer dared his critics to formally challenge him if they had the support to do so, telling ministers, “The country expects us to get on with governing,” according to a statement from his office.
It was unclear what might happen in the hours ahead, but supporters of the prime minister who were in the meeting said that there had been no direct challenges to Mr. Starmer during the discussion.
Mr. Starmer has been facing a fast-moving rebellion within his party after it suffered major losses in last week’s local elections in England, and in parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales. Dozens of Labour Party lawmakers have publicly urged him to set out a timetable for his resignation to allow a contest to find his successor.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, a junior minister, resigned from the government just as the cabinet meeting started. A second junior minister, Jess Phillips, resigned later, writing that Mr. Starmer was “a good man fundamentally” but that he had been too unwilling to fight for the things the Labour Party believes in. A third minister, Alex Davies-Jones, resigned soon after.
Attention now shifts to Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who has made no secret of his desire to challenge Mr. Starmer. But he would need the backing of at least 81 Labour lawmakers to formally trigger a leadership contest. It was unclear on Tuesday whether Mr. Streeting, or any other possible candidate, had enough support to make that happen.
Some of Mr. Starmer’s fiercest critics do not want him to leave office immediately, but rather to announce that he will step down in the fall. That would give the party time to organize a contest to succeed him that might include Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who appears to have political momentum behind him. But Mr. Burnham would need to win a seat in Parliament first in a special election, something that would take weeks if not months.
Here’s what to know:
Growing discontent: At least 80 Labour Party lawmakers — about one-fifth of its members of Parliament — have called on Mr. Starmer to step down or set up a timeline for his resignation, according to the BBC.
Forcing a fight: If Mr. Starmer refuses to step aside, Labour lawmakers could force a leadership election. Here’s how a challenge could play out.
Possible challengers: In addition to Mr. Burnham and Mr. Streeting, others who could challenge Mr. Starmer include Angela Rayner, who served as deputy prime minister before stepping aside amid questions about her personal taxes.
Jittery markets: The fragility of Mr. Starmer’s position was not received well in financial markets on Tuesday. The pound was initially down 0.5 percent against the dollar at $1.35. Yields on British government bonds (which move inversely to prices) jumped as markets opened.
More than 100 Labour lawmakers have signed a letter opposing a leadership contest. The letter describes last week’s election results as “devastatingly tough” and says they show there is “a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.” It adds: “That job needs to start today — with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs. We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.” It was signed by backbench lawmakers, who are not part of the government (although some signatories were unpaid parliamentary aides to ministers) and illustrates that there are deep divisions about what should happen next.
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Even as Keir Starmer vowed to fight on as prime minister, Britain is facing a politically perilous moment.
At least that’s what the bond markets are saying.
On Tuesday, the British pound and the price of government bonds dropped as a rebellion within the governing Labour Party gathered pace to push Mr. Starmer out. The pound fell 0.5 percent to $1.35. Bond yields, which move inversely to prices, jumped. The benchmark 10-year yield climbed to 5.12 percent, up from 5 percent on Monday evening, a sizable move. The yield stayed at that level later in the day after Mr. Starmer said he would get on with governing. But resignations from members of his team continued.
In British politics, the bond market has come to hold huge sway. The premiership of Liz Truss was cut short in 2022 amid convulsions in the bond market after investors balked at her borrowing and spending plans. This time, that market has signaled support for Mr. Starmer and his government’s intentions to bring down debt levels by sticking to ironclad fiscal rules.
But uncertainty over how long Mr. Starmer will retain his position is adding strain to the bond market. The rising yields signal concern that a new political leader might be tempted to borrow more to pay for more spending and investments.
“Because it is unclear who is most likely to succeed Starmer and the policies that they would pursue, investors are likely to attach a risk premium to U.K. assets until the uncertainty is resolved,” Andrew Wishart, an economist at the bank Berenberg, wrote in an note.
He added that members of the Labour party, if given the chance, would be more likely to choose a more left-leaning successor. “Pursuit of a further-left policy agenda risks” measures that could push the economy closer to slower growth, higher interest rates and even an exodus of capital from the British economy, he wrote.
But several economists have noted that while political instability is harmful for British financial assets, the war in the Middle East has a bigger economic impact.
U.K. 10-year government bond yield
The rebellion against Mr. Starmer was set off by his party’s poor performance in local elections across Britain last week. But even before then, the yields on government bonds were rising sharply. These moves were greater than moves in the giant U.S. bond market, as well as in the yields of many of Britain’s European neighbors. The conflict in the Middle East was expected to worsen an already challenging economic and fiscal outlook in Britain.
Inflation in Britain was stubbornly high and just as it was expected to fall, the war in the Middle East sent global energy prices surging. Britain is now facing higher inflation and slower economic growth this year. Investors are now betting that the central bank will raise interest rates instead of cutting them this year, in turn raising borrowing costs for mortgage holders, businesses and the government. All of these lead to a more constrained financial outlook and make it harder for any leader to pursue quick economic growth.
An ouster of Mr. Starmer and his top financial official, Rachel Reeves, would lead to higher yields on British government bonds, known as gilts, and overall interest rates, analysts at Capital Economics concluded in a recent report.
“We doubt a new leadership would be any more successful at boosting medium-term economic growth either, not least because the current fiscal constraints would remain,” the Capital Economics analysts wrote. “For the gilt market, though, the war in Iran matters more.”
With Britain facing a higher inflation outlook and political uncertainty, 10-year bond yields at 5 percent “are here to stay,” said Andrew Goodwin, an economist at Oxford Economics.
The Starmer leadership crisis is awkwardly timed for one person in particular: King Charles III. On Wednesday he is scheduled to open the new session of Parliament and to read out a speech laying out the prime minister’s legislative agenda. Starmer will likely try to use the occasion to present an image of business as usual. But the uncertainty over how long the prime minister will survive could make it one of the most unusual King’s speeches in recent years.
The official “readout” of today’s cabinet meeting revealed the topics of discussion: the Iran war’s impact on Britain, the need to provide support for people who use heating oil, getting the Strait of Hormuz open, and the upcoming King’s Speech to kick off another session of Parliament. Not mentioned at all in the readout? Anything at all about Starmer’s future or how he dared his critics to challenge his leadership.
An earlier statement noted that Starmer dared his colleagues to challenge him and said he would continue to focus on governing.
Another junior minister has resigned from the government, Alex Davies-Jones, who has quit her position in the justice ministry. Davies-Jones, who represents Pontypridd in Wales in Parliament, cites in her resignation letter the “catastrophic” scale of the electoral defeats in the Welsh Parliament elections — where Labour was evicted from power last week — as well as across the rest of Britain. She called on Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure, saying: “The country has spoken and we must listen.”
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When the Labour Party delivered a decisive win in Britain’s 2024 general election, Prime Minister Keir Starmer was seen by his supporters as a steady hand after years of political turmoil. But local elections last week delivered devastating losses in Labour strongholds, with voters delivering a scathing verdict on Mr. Starmer’s 22 months in office.
Labour lost more than 1,400 council seats, shedding support to the left-wing Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party.
Heading into the local elections, many had voiced concerns about Mr. Starmer and Labour.
“Everything just seems so negative,” said Lesley Griffin, 65, a voter in Bexley in South London last week. She said that in the past, she had usually cast her ballot for Labour, and did so in the last general election, but she felt that under the current government, things had worsened nationally and locally.
“I imagine a lot of people are mad at the Labour Party at the moment,” said James Love, 51, a voter in the East London borough of Hackney, after casting his ballot last week.
While many, including Mr. Love, said that ultimately their decision about who to vote for came down to local issues rather than national governance, there was a growing sense of broader discontent.
In Hackney, a borough long-dominated by Labour, the Green Party took overall control of the local council and clinched the mayoral seat.
Recent polling from YouGov, conducted on Monday, found that 50 percent of people surveyed believe that Mr. Starmer should stand down and be replaced by a new Labour prime minister.
A separate favorability tracker from YouGov showed that by the end of last month, some 70 percent of people surveyed felt that Mr. Starmer was doing badly as prime minister. When he first became leader in July 2024, 43 percent disapproved of his performance.
Sky News has published a resignation letter from Jess Phillips, a junior minister in the Home Office, from the government. In her letter she accused Starmer’s government of timidity, saying: “The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument.”
Though she is not in the cabinet, Phillips is a well known politician who has campaigned to combat violence against women and girls. Her resignation letter characterized the prime minister as a good man but an ineffectual leader.
Britain’s borrowing costs, which have risen since the start of the war in Iran, surged briefly on Tuesday to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis as Keir Starmer’s fight for his premiership causes more uncertainty. “Markets clearly perceive the UK has a bigger inflation problem and that tighter monetary policy will be needed to limit second-round effects from the energy shock, while political uncertainty has added to pressures at the long end,” Andrew Goodwin, the chief U.K. economist for Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note.
The events of this morning underscore how much harder it is in Britain to get rid of a Labour prime minister than a Conservative one. That’s because the Conservatives have a system under which their lawmakers sign anonymous letters of no confidence in their leader and, when a threshold is reached, a contest is triggered. By contrast, Labour’s rules require 81 lawmakers to support a single, alternative, candidate. While around that number of MPs have called on Starmer to step down or set a timetable to resign, they have not rallied around one potential successor.
Leo Sands
Reporting from London
The last time a prime minister was forced out by allies was October 2022, when Liz Truss became the shortest-serving leader in the country’s history. In some ways, the parallels are striking. Like the Conservative Party then, Labour Party lawmakers now hold a huge parliamentary majority that they fear could be obliterated at the next general election without a change in leadership. But there is also a key difference: the trigger moment for Truss’s abrupt fall was her announcement of unfunded tax cuts, which rattled bond traders and causing interest rates to spike. Although Britain is facing difficult economic headwinds, including rising energy prices and high government borrowing costs, the bond markets are not as volatile as they were under the final weeks of Truss’s premiership.
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There’s a statement now on social media from John Healey, the defense secretary, joining a number of ministers in backing Starmer. “People are worried about current conflicts and looming global crises,” he wrote, adding that the public expect their government to lead the country through, as the prime minister “is doing.” He added: “More instability is not in Britain’s interest. Our full focus now must be on dealing with immediate economic and security challenges.”
The number of Labour lawmakers publicly calling on Starmer to resign is steadily creeping higher, according to tallies being kept by British news organizations. The BBC put its latest count at 80, around a fifth of all Labour Party lawmakers in Parliament. As we’ve just mentioned, this alone is not enough to trigger a leadership challenge, because they have not united behind a single challenger.
Starmer is a lawyer by training so it’s perhaps no surprise that his hardball position is based on the fine print of the Labour Party rulebook. The critical fact is not how many lawmakers call for him to stand aside. What needs to happen to challenge him is for 81 to coalesce around one alternative candidate. So far that hasn’t happened. As long as that remains the case, he can stay.
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Facing calls to resign from dozens of Labour Party lawmakers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning that he intends to continue in office.
It was one of a few options Mr. Starmer could choose, none of which appear particularly palatable.
Option 1: Defy calls to resign
Mr. Starmer appeared to face down his critics on Tuesday, daring them to formally challenge him if they had the support to do so. They would need to gather at least 81 Labour lawmakers to coalesce around a potential rival to trigger a leadership contest. It was unclear on Tuesday whether they had enough support to make that happen.
No contender to succeed the prime minister has so far publicly declared themselves to be a challenger, perhaps for fear of being the first to wield the political dagger and looking disloyal in the eyes of party members, who ultimately would decide on Mr. Starmer’s successor. In his remarks to the cabinet on Tuesday, Mr. Starmer warned that a leadership fight would not be good for the country and was already doing economic damage.
Option 2: Set out a timetable to resign
Dozens of Labour Party lawmakers had publicly urged Mr. Starmer to set out a timetable for his resignation to allow a contest to find his successor.
This option would postpone his departure for a few months and might provide some reassurance to financial markets about the immediate future of the government, particularly given the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
It would effectively make Mr. Starmer a lame duck prime minister, casting him in the role of caretaker until his successor is chosen.
It would also give the party time to organize a contest to succeed him that might include Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who appears to have political momentum behind him. Mr. Burnham would need to win a seat in Parliament first in a special election, something that was certain to take weeks if not months.
Option 3: Make some kind of concession
There has been speculation that Mr. Starmer could open the way for Mr. Burnham to return to Parliament, by stating clearly he would not block the mayor from running in a special election and would welcome him back into the government as a lawmaker.
Such a move could encourage supporters of Mr. Burnham — who polls suggest is currently the most popular Labour Party politician in Britain — to support Mr. Starmer for a few more months, and might therefore win the prime minister some time.
Option 4: Resign
For now, it appears that Mr. Starmer is defying calls to step down. “The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered,” Mr. Starmer said on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office. “The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet.”
There is always a possibility that he might change his mind, announce his resignation, and let the process for choosing his successor unfold as soon as possible. But even then, he would likely remain in Downing Street until that had taken place.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has just emerged from No. 10 Downing Street and walked briskly past reporters. He made no comments about what happened in the cabinet meeting and what he might do about possibly challenging the prime minister.
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We haven’t seen or heard from either Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who is believed to want to challenge Starmer, or Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, who reportedly told the prime minister last night that he should set out a schedule for his resignation.
Now, several of Starmer’s backers inside the cabinet have spoken to reporters, saying that there were expressions of support for the prime minister during the meeting. They repeated Starmer’s comment that a formal leadership challenge has not been triggered.
Just one minister, Steve Reed, the housing secretary, made remarks as he walked out of Downing Street, saying the prime minister had his full support and that there was a process for rivals to challenge Mr. Starmer if they wanted to do so.
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It looks like the cabinet meeting has ended. Ministers are walking out of No. 10 Downing Street, with most refusing to talk to the crowd of reporters gathered outside.
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Some Labour lawmakers have made clear they believe losing Starmer, and the political turmoil it would cause, isn’t just bad for their party, but for the country.
“This is not a game. This instability has consequences for people’s lives,” Steve Reed, the housing secretary, wrote in a post on social media. “The people who will be hurt most will be those that elected us less than two years ago. We must unite behind the Prime Minister.”
For months, senior Labour figures have believed Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was organizing for a possible leadership contest (and that he was, in the Westminster parlance, “on maneuvers”). So Starmer’s defiant message in cabinet today is being seen by some as a message to Streeting: put up or shut up.
With rebellious Labour lawmakers calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure, speculation is rife about who might replace him. To mount a challenge, any contender would need the support of 81 Labour lawmakers (20 percent of the total) and the final decision would be taken by members of the party. There are a number of potential contenders and leadership contests sometime produce unexpected results.
But here are three top contenders as things stand.
Andy Burnham
The political momentum is with Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, in northern England, and the only senior Labour figure who seems significantly more popular with voters than Mr. Starmer, according to opinion polls. The snag is that he would have to win a seat in Parliament before mounting a challenge, as only a lawmaker can be Labour leader. That could take weeks, if not much longer, to organize, so a longer timetable for Mr. Starmer to stand aside would suit his ambitions.
Wes Streeting
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has support on the right of the party and is widely recognized as one of the government’s most effective communicators. But he has been damaged by links to Peter Mandelson, who was fired as Britain’s ambassador to Washington when the depth of his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed. It could be to Mr. Streeting’s advantage to have a swift contest to succeed Mr. Starmer because Mr. Burnham would likely not be able to run.
Angela Rayner
In Mr. Burnham’s absence, Angela Rayner, the former deputy leader, is probably the favored candidate of the left of the party. She resigned last year, however, over a tax imbroglio that is still unresolved.
On Sunday, Ms. Rayner increased the pressure on Mr. Starmer by issuing a statement criticizing a “toxic culture of cronyism” within Labour, warning that the party may be on its “last chance.” She also described a decision by party bosses this year to prevent Mr. Burnham from trying to run in a special election for Parliament as “a mistake.” That could suggest that Ms. Rayner would prefer to support a bid by Mr. Burnham to take over, rather than to challenge Mr. Starmer herself.
Ed Davey, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats Party, said in a statement on Tuesday: “The jig is up for Keir Starmer. He can hold out for a bit longer or he can hold on to a bit of dignity and go today. If moderates want to beat populists they have to govern effectively. From Labour under Starmer it has been a shambles from day one.”
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Several economists have noted that while this political instability is harmful for British financial assets, the war in the Middle East has a bigger economic impact. If Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves were ousted “we suspect the result would probably be higher interest rates and higher gilt yields than otherwise,” said analysts at Capital Economics. “We doubt a new leadership would be any more successful at boosting medium-term economic growth either, not least because the current fiscal constraints would remain. For the gilt market, though, the war in Iran matters more.”
Starmer’s defiant comments at the cabinet meeting echo his speech a day earlier, when he vowed to continue in office. “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 destabilizing for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,” he told the cabinet this morning, according to his office.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer opened the cabinet meeting by saying he will not stand down, challenging his critics to gather enough support to formally trigger a leadership challenge. “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,” he said, according to a statement from his office.
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