UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning as calls grew louder within his Labour Party for him to step down and some junior members of his government quit in protest.
Starmer tried to shore up support within his Cabinet following a feverish few days in the wake of hefty losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election that has to be held by 2029 would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.
Though no one in his Cabinet has quit or publicly stated that the prime minister should set out a timetable for a change in leader, several junior ministers stepped down. The resignations stoked speculation that Starmer could suffer the fate of Boris Johnson in 2022 when dozens of ministers quit en masse and forced his departure.
Around 90 Labour lawmakers, or more than a fifth of the parliamentary party, have now said Starmer should stand down or at least set out a timetable for his departure.
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That’s not enough to trigger a leadership contest, though, as no candidate has issued a challenge to the prime minister. Under Labour party rules, a fifth of its lawmakers in the House of Commons, or 81 members, must publicly give their backing to a single candidate for a leadership election to take place.
More than 100 Labour MPs signed a statement arguing that “this is no time for a leadership contest”, adding that the job of winning back the trust of the electorate “needs to start today — with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs”.
On Tuesday, several junior ministers, some of whom were only elected for the first time in Labour’s landslide election victory of July 2024, resigned and urged Starmer to do the same for the good of the country as well as the party. Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister of housing, communities and local government, became the first member of his government to step down, urging Starmer “to do the right thing for the country” and set a timetable for his departure.
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She was followed by Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister and a prominent member of the Labour Party. In her resignation letter, she described Starmer as a “good man fundamentally” but unable to make bold changes.
“I know you care deeply, but deeds, not words are what matter,” Phillips said. “I’m not sure we are grasping this rare opportunity with the gusto that’s needed and I cannot keep waiting around for a crisis to push for faster progress.”
Despite winning a landslide election victory in July 2024, Labour’s popularity has sunk and Starmer is getting much of the blame. The reasons are varied, including a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister’s part, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgement — especially over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington despite the envoy’s ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week’s elections but that he would fight on.
