Mr Starmer, who has been in the top job for less than two years, took responsibility for the party’s worst election defeat in its history, but told ministers there had been no formal move to trigger an election.
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LONDON – Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday ignored calls to resign, telling ministers he would continue to govern despite “destabilization” despite growing calls over the past 48 hours for him to set a date for his resignation following a disastrous local election defeat.
Mr Starmer, who has been in the top job for less than two years and is responsible for Labour’s worst election defeat, reiterated in a cabinet meeting that there were no formal moves to trigger a leadership contest. Several loyal ministers expressed their support for him.
It was Mr Starmer’s latest pledge to continue as prime minister despite winning a majority in the 2024 national election and sparking a stalemate between his party and Labor rebels despite being plagued by scandals and policy shifts.
Support for the Labor Party as a whole is also beginning to decline. Prominent Labor MP and women’s rights campaigner Jess Phillips will be one of three junior ministers to resign on Tuesday, joining more than 80 MPs who have publicly called on Starmer to set a date for his departure.
All eyes were on whether party leaders, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has made little secret of his ambitions to one day become prime minister, intend to challenge Mr Starmer directly.
Borrowing costs rise
Mr Starmer nods that borrowing costs have risen to the highest level in nearly 30 years due to fears of renewed political instability in the UK, saying: “The last 48 hours have destabilized our government and that is causing real economic costs for our country and its families.”
“Labour has a process for challenging leaders, but it has not been triggered,” Starmer told ministers, according to his Downing Street office.
“The country expects us to continue to govern. That’s what I’m doing and what we have to do as a cabinet.”
Senior ministers who left Downing Street expressed their support for Mr Starmer, with Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden telling reporters that no one in the Cabinet had spoken out against him.
Others believed to want Mr Starmer to step down, including Health Secretary Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud, either left without comment or did not leave via Downing Street, where reporters had gathered.
In his resignation statement, Mr Phillips, a non-ministerial cabinet minister, said Mr Starmer’s timid style and gradualist approach would not bring about the change the country needed. and she joined Those calling for new leadership to be installed in an orderly manner.
The much-promised stability evaporates
It has been a long time since Starmer first became Labor leader in 2020, taking over the party after its worst national election result since 1935 under his predecessor, veteran left-wing Jeremy Corbyn.
He was then seen as a safe pair who could drag Labor towards the centre.
The 2024 election gave Labor one of the largest majorities in modern British history, bringing stability after years of turmoil under the Conservative Party, which oversaw five prime ministers in eight years.
Now he is fighting for political survival.
Bond markets have been sensitive to any suggestion that Mr Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves may resign.
Investors fear a change to the left will prompt further spending at a time when Britain’s finances are already under strain and borrowing costs are the highest among the seven developed countries.
Labor PM that is difficult to remove
“I have no idea how he’s going to get through the day,” one Labor MP told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
However, it is generally more difficult for Labor MPs to dismiss the Prime Minister than it is for the opposition Conservative Party. Dozens of Labor MPs may have expressed their dissatisfaction with Mr Starmer, but 81 of them would need to rally behind one candidate to trigger an election.
According to a Reuters tally, about half of those who called for his resignation were from the party’s left, while just over a quarter were centrist. This would suggest that there is still no candidate who can sway the numbers.
Foreign Office permanent secretary Jenny Chapman said the majority of Labor’s 403 MPs “do not want chaos”.
Sacking Starmer now, or forcing him to set a departure date, is likely to favor Streeting, who is in a position to make the first move. His supporters argue that Mr Streeting, who comes from the party’s right wing, may be a better communicator than Mr Starmer.
Other potential candidates, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and former deputy prime minister Angela Lynagh, both seen as favorites of the party’s moderate left, face obstacles to running.
Burnham has no parliamentary seat. Rayner has yet to fully resolve the tax issues that led to his resignation last year.
