{"id":34182,"date":"2026-05-12T01:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34182\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T01:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:48:08","slug":"keir-starmer-clings-on-as-labour-ministers-call-on-him-to-resign-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34182\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer clings on as Labour ministers call on him to resign \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s job as UK prime minister appeared to be slipping away from him on Monday night as upwards of 70 of his own Labour<\/a> MPs called on him to step down or set out a timeline for departure.<\/p>\n

Several cabinet members were understood to have called for him to set out a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n

Starmer, under pressure over his party\u2019s dire performance in elections last week, had hoped to shore up his position with a speech promising to develop closer ties with the European Union<\/a>, amid a renewed effort to prove his \u201cdoubters wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

The speech did not staunch the flow of internal dissent against the British prime minister, however, as allies of his main leadership rivals called on him to plan for his exit in what seemed to be a series of co-ordinated, drip-fed interventions.<\/p>\n

As Monday wore on, the calls also shifted from ordinary backbenchers to more senior ministerial aides, a ratcheting up of the pressure on Starmer.<\/p>\n

Several backbench allies of British health secretary and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting called on Starmer to step down swiftly on Monday evening. But among the aides, Joe Morris, one of Streeting\u2019s parliamentary private secretaries \u2013 a PPS, an MP who works as an assistant to a senior minister \u2013 quit his job to call on Starmer to go.<\/p>\n

Other backbenchers, seen as supporters of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>, called for Starmer to plan for a slower \u201corderly transition\u201d that would give their favoured candidate time to re-enter the House of Commons in a byelection.<\/p>\n

An early leadership contest would better suit Streeting as he might not have to face Burnham, who would be unable to stand unless he first returned as an MP.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Paul’s analysis: Starmer left to face the music as trickle of dissenters becomes a floodOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Streeting, a leading figure of the right wing of the Labour Party, would be unlikely to get a free run, however. It is believed that in Burnham\u2019s absence from a contest, Streeting would be challenged by another left candidate, such as former deputy leader Angela Rayner.<\/p>\n

A source with knowledge of Burnham\u2019s designs on the Labour leadership confirmed that the Manchester mayor\u2019s strategy in recent days had been to slowly pressure Starmer into resigning. Only then would a compliant Burnham ally step aside as an MP to free up space for Burnham to run in a byelection, free from the risk that Starmer\u2019s allies on Labour\u2019s National Executive Committee would block him from running.<\/p>\n

However, the emergence of Streeting\u2019s allies on to the scene could change the landscape for Burnham and his plan to engineer a later a leadership contest after his hoped-for return.<\/p>\n

Among other senior figures who called on Starmer to go on Monday after his reset speech were Sally Jameson, a PPS for home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who called on Starmer to set a timeline for his departure.<\/p>\n

Tom Rutland, a PPS for Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, quit his role, as did MPs working as PPS aides for justice secretary and deputy prime minister David Lammy and cabinet office minister Darren Jones.<\/p>\n

In what was seen as a significant intervention earlier on Monday, Chris Curtis, an MP who is one of Streeting\u2019s closest political allies, also called on Starmer to go \u201cswiftly\u201d. This fuelled speculation that the health secretary may soon challenge Starmer.<\/p>\n

If the flow of dissenters were to shift in coming days from PPS rank to junior ministers, and after that, cabinet members, then Starmer\u2019s position may become untenable.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, the prime minister said he still wanted to lead Labour into a battle \u201cfor Britain\u2019s soul\u201d with Nigel Farage\u2019s<\/a> Reform UK<\/a> party, as he insisted he would also fight any leadership challengers. He said voters would never forgive Labour if the party turned inwards on itself to focus on a leadership contest in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

King Charles is due to give a speech to parliament on Wednesday, outlining the UK government\u2019s legislative priorities for the year or so ahead. He may do so against a backdrop of government chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer\u2019s job as UK prime minister appeared to be slipping away from him on Monday night as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7786,1469,94,4655,95,408,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-34182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-keir-starmer","11":"tag-labour-party-uk","12":"tag-nigel-farage","13":"tag-reform-uk","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116559092312339530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34182","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=34182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}