Aides quit as 60 Labour MPs urge Starmer to go
Four government aides have resigned as they joined scores of Labour MPs calling for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stand down after local election results.
Source: BBC Politics
Four ministerial aides have quit and more than 60 Labour MPs publicly called for British PM Keir Starmer to resign after his appeal for another chance seemingly fell on deaf ears.
At an address to the party faithful in London on Sunday, Starmer made an impassioned plea to his party and voters to stick with him and avoid a leadership contest he said would only bring chaos, promising to be bolder.
But his speech, in which he all but admitted he had been too timid in tackling the myriad problems besetting Britain since he won a large majority in 2024, did little to ease the anger felt at one of the worst defeats for Labour in last week’s local elections.
Four ministerial aides said they were resigning, believing that Starmer, 63, was not the man to lead Labour into the next general election, due in 2029. They hope to trigger a leadership contest that could last weeks, if not months.
“It is clear to me that the Prime Minister has lost authority not just within the parliamentary Labour Party but across the country and that he will not be able to regain it,” said Tom Rutland, a ministerial aide to the environment minister, in his resignation letter.
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Catherine West, an Australian-born former junior minister who broke cover at the weekend to threaten to seek a leadership contest if Starmer failed to offer radical change, told Reuters she had received 80 responses supporting her demand that Starmer set out a timetable for his departure.
She called for a leadership election in September.
The Times newspaper reported on Monday night that interior minister Shabana Mahmood and other senior cabinet ministers had urged Starmer to consider setting out a timeline for his departure.
It said Mahmood was one of at least three cabinet ministers to suggest that Starmer consider his position.
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Two of Starmer’s closest allies, environment minister Steve Reed and defence minister John Healey, entered his Downing Street office late on Monday, according to Sky News.
Officials did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was a scheduled meeting.
Earlier, Starmer had tried to change the narrative about his leadership, arguing that he would offer a “complete break” with the decision-making of the past that led to the “status quo”.
He promised to govern with the “hope” and “urgency” required to improve living standards and produce a “stronger, fairer” country to try to crush the challenge posed by the populist Reform UK party on the right, and the Greens from the left before the next general election.
“Our response this time must be different, a complete break. We must make this country stronger and take control of our economic security,” Starmer earlier on Monday told an audience of party faithful, who gave him several standing ovations.
“I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain. Frustrated by politics, and some people are frustrated with me.
“I know I have my doubters and I know I need to prove them wrong. And I will.”
The applause was a long way from the messaging groups of Labour MPs, where talk about removing Starmer has stepped up a gear after the party lost hundreds of seats in elections to councils in England and the parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
While few Labour MPs were prepared to publicly endorse Starmer, his closest allies again warned against removing a leader this early into his term, saying it would only further harm Britain.
“Changing leader just leads to chaos. We saw what happened under the Tories. Let’s learn from their mistakes, not repeat them,” Reed said on social media, referring to the opposition Conservative party.
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