{"id":33913,"date":"2026-05-11T16:26:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/33913\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:26:59","slug":"who-could-challenge-keir-starmer-for-the-uk-pms-job-meet-the-candidates-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/33913\/","title":{"rendered":"Who could challenge Keir Starmer for the UK PM\u2019s job? Meet the candidates | Politics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2060Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to prove his doubters wrong \u200cas he fights for his political future in the wake of last week\u2019s disastrous local election results and growing speculation that a leadership contest may not be far off.<\/p>\n

In a make-or-break speech speech<\/a> on Monday, the leader of the ruling Labour Party said that he remains \u2060the \u2060man to deliver change and will take responsibility for fulfilling his party\u2019s electoral promises.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Labour came to power in July 2024 in a landslide victory, following 14 years of Conservative Party rule. Since then, Starmer\u2019s popularity has tanked while support for the anti-immigration party, Reform UK, led by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage, has soared. In local elections last week, Labour lost more than 1,460 council seats in England \u2013 most of them won by Reform \u2013 in the worst election results suffered by a governing party in more than three decades.<\/p>\n

It has prompted calls from MPs for Starmer to resign. So far, he has refused to consider that, describing his government as a \u201c10-year \u200cproject\u201d while conceding that the party under his leadership has made mistakes.<\/p>\n

Why is pressure on Starmer mounting now?<\/p>\n

Discontent with Starmer\u2019s leadership has been increasing over the past year. That could be seen clearly last week in the heavy losses in English local elections and parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n

While Labour lost nearly 1,500 local council seats, Reform UK surged from fewer than 100 to around 1,450 seats under Farage.<\/p>\n

Support for Labour evaporated, even in several of its traditional strongholds in London, in former so-called \u201cRed Wall\u201d industrial regions in central and northern England, and in Wales, mainly benefiting Farage\u2019s populist party.<\/p>\n

One major issue is what many voters view as Starmer\u2019s failure to tackle immigration. Despite agreeing a \u201cone-in-one-out<\/a>\u201d deal with France last year to return undocumented migrants in return for those with a clear link to the UK, only a few have been successfully sent back.<\/p>\n

There has also been mounting pressure over Labour\u2019s appointment of Peter Mandelson<\/a> as ambassador to the US in December 2024. He was sacked after embarrassing emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein were uncovered by British media last September. Since then, Mandelson has been accused of sharing sensitive financial market information with Epstein in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2006-2007. Starmer has been accused of failing to heed warnings not to appoint him as ambassador, despite knowing of his connections to the convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n

Starmer has publicly apologised, but said he did not know how close their relationship was. \u201cNone of us knew the depth and the darkness of that relationship,\u201d Starmer said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Starmer has one of the lowest approval ratings for a Western leader. The latest Ipsos Political Pulse opinion poll shows half of Britain\u2019s electorate believes Starmer should step down, and two-thirds believe he is unlikely to win reelection. The next general election must be held by July 2029 \u2013 five years after the previous one.<\/p>\n

Bale said local elections only confirmed what the public already knew and Labour Party members feared. \u201cNamely, [that] the government is terribly unpopular and Starmer is even more unpopular than the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a speech in London in a bid to secure his premiership following devastating election losses for his Labour Party [Carl Court\/Getty Images]Who could Starmer\u2019s main challengers be?<\/p>\n

To trigger a leadership contest, more than 20 percent of Labour MPs \u2013 81 of them \u2013 must support a new candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a serious possibility,\u201d Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty low bar when there is so much discontent in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party].\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the potential challengers:<\/p>\n

Angela Rayner<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s former deputy prime minister, the left-leaning trade unionist Angela Rayner, has been touted as one of the most credible challengers, although she has not put herself forward. Rayner was the housing secretary but was forced to resign last year for breaking the ministerial code on her taxes.<\/p>\n

She has reportedly called for the return of the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to parliament, suggesting she would back him in a leadership contest. Burnham is not an MP, having been blocked by Labour\u2019s National Executive Committee (NEC) from standing in a by-election in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are doing isn\u2019t working, and it needs to change. It\u2019s no good acknowledging mistakes if they\u2019re not put right,\u201d Rayner said on Monday after Starmer\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Bale said Rayner would likely garner consensus within the party.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] left-leaning Labour MPs feel that Starmer\u2019s leaned too far right and the government needs a course-correction,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting<\/p>\n

Bale said Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has traditionally been seen as being at the centre-right of the party but has taken a left-wing stance on some issues such as Gaza and welfare, is also a likely contender, as some MPs do not deem Rayner to be\u00a0 \u201cup to the job\u201d and rate him as a good communicator. It is thought he may have already secured the required 20 percent of Labour MPs to support a bid, some British media reported on Monday.<\/p>\n

Streeting\u2019s allies have pointed to election results in Redbridge, the local authority in his constituency, where Labour held on last week, as a favourable sign for a possible leadership challenge. However, he has in the past lost support because of his previous friendship with Mandelson, the UK\u2019s Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.<\/p>\n

Rayner or Streeting may be most likely to kick off a leadership contest, but neither is universally popular within Labour itself, say observers.<\/p>\n

Catherine West<\/p>\n

\u2060Catherine West, the little-known MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet in north London, appears to have backed down after warning she could attempt to trigger a leadership contest.<\/p>\n

In a BBC interview on Friday, West said she would prefer to see the cabinet \u201creorganise themselves\u201d to avoid a leadership election. But if no new leader was forthcoming by Monday, she would ask MPs to back her to challenge the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Following Starmer\u2019s speech on Monday, she criticised it as \u201ctoo little too late\u201d, but suggested she would no longer stand for the Labour leadership. Even before backing down, West acknowledged she did not have the support needed to force a contest. Her threat of triggering one herself appeared to be an attempt to force more high-profile contenders to make a move.<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who ranks in opinion polls as the public\u2019s preferred choice, is currently unable to challenge as he does not have a seat in parliament \u2013 he will need to win a by-election before he can mount a challenge.<\/p>\n

YouGov polling has found that 34 percent of Britons think he would be a better prime minister than Starmer.<\/p>\n

Last year, Burnham was repeatedly touted as a contender for the leadership and notably never publicly ruled it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2060Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to prove his doubters wrong \u200cas he fights for his political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1360,252,9042,181,432,18,14,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-33913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-explainer","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-migration","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116556886402636394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}