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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets construction apprentices during a visit to London South Bank Technical College in London, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Toby Melville\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n
Toby Melville\/AP<\/p>\n
Britain’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting arrives in Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alberto Pezzali\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – King Charles III looks up as he reads the King’s Speech, during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords in London on July 17, 2024.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
A woman walks past the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP<\/p>\n
Larry the cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office leaves 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting in London, Tuesday, May 12, 2026 as Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing the biggest threat yet to his authority after a growing number of disaffected lawmakers called for him to step down.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 King Charles III will present the U.K. government’s legislative program to Parliament on Wednesday as uncertainty clouds the future of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership. Starmer on Tuesday defied calls for him to stand down, following a disastrous showing for his Labour Party in local and regional elections last week. Ahead of the King’s Speech, he met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as one of his potential challengers, at his office in Downing Street.<\/p>\n
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King Charles III visits the Commons<\/p>\n
The monarch traditionally travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament, a distance of less than a mile, in a horse-drawn carriage. He then dons the Imperial State Crown and the robe of state before leading a procession into the chamber of the unelected House of Lords.<\/p>\n
A Lords official called Black Rod, named for the ebony rod he or she carries, then goes to the House of Commons to summon the chamber\u2019s members to a joint sitting of Parliament. The doors to the Commons chamber are slammed in Black Rod\u2019s face to symbolize the chamber\u2019s independence from the monarchy, and they aren\u2019t opened until Black Rod strikes the doors three times.<\/p>\n
Once members of the Commons have crowded into the Lords\u2019 chamber, the king delivers a speech written by the government and laying out its legislative program for the coming session of Parliament.<\/p>\n
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After the speech is read and the king leaves, the two houses of Parliament begin several days of debate on its contents.<\/p>\n
Starmer wins support<\/p>\n
At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week\u2019s elections but would fight on.<\/p>\n
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As Cabinet members left 10 Downing Street, some voiced their support for the embattled prime minister.<\/p>\n
Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said nobody publicly challenged Starmer at the meeting, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the prime minister was showing \u201creally steadfast leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Starmer\u2019s deputy David Lammy warned Labour lawmakers that the only beneficiary of the party\u2019s \u201cnavel-gazing\u201d is the populist right and the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has my full support, and what I say to colleagues is, look, let\u2019s just step back,\u201d he said. \u201cTake a breath.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The first resignations<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, several junior ministers, some of whom were elected for the first time in Labour\u2019s landslide election victory in July 2024, resigned and urged Starmer to do the same.<\/p>\n
Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister of housing, communities and local government, was the first to quit, urging Starmer \u201cto do the right thing for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cgood man fundamentally\u201d but unable to make bold changes.<\/p>\n
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Despite the party\u2019s dominant win driving out the Conservatives after 14 years in power, Labour\u2019s popularity has plunged and Starmer is getting much of the blame.<\/p>\n
The reasons include a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister\u2019s part, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgment. Starmer\u2019s choice of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington despite ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has continued to haunt him.<\/p>\n
Starmer remains defiant as calls for his resignation grow and several ministers quit<\/p>\n
Starmer insisted 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.<\/p>\n
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Starmer\u2019s future has become a hot topic over the past few feverish days following historic 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.<\/p>\n
Though no Cabinet member has quit or publicly stated the prime minister should step aside for a change in leader, there\u2019s growing speculation that the ambitious health secretary, Wes Streeting, will inform Starmer that his days are numbered when they meet on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Streeting has many supporters within the parliamentary party, including some of those who resigned from Starmer\u2019s government on Tuesday, which stoked speculation that Starmer could suffer the fate of Boris Johnson in 2022 when dozens of ministers quit en masse and forced his departure.<\/p>\n
Speech likely to include proposals to address cost of living and asylum rules<\/p>\n
The King\u2019s Speech is part of the state opening of Parliament, a traditional set piece of the political calendar. Many of the expected proposals have been announced previously, raising questions over Starmer\u2019s capacity to win over his doubters.<\/p>\n
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The speech is expected to include proposals to address the cost of living crisis, create a national wealth fund to stimulate private investment in public infrastructure and tighten rules for asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
It may also include the government\u2019s controversial proposal to abolish jury trials for some cases in England and Wales, lower the voting age to 16 and introduce a \u201cduty of candor\u201d for public officials, requiring them to tell the truth and cooperate with investigations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets construction apprentices during a visit to London South Bank Technical College in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[4339,21654,664,39598,264,2691,4018,572,573,39625,7862,6102,569,3215,40162,1436,10415],"class_list":{"0":"post-69090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-boris-johnson","9":"tag-david-lammy","10":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","11":"tag-jess-phillips","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-king-charles-iii","14":"tag-nigel-farage","15":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","16":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","17":"tag-pat-mcfadden","18":"tag-peter-kyle","19":"tag-peter-mandelson","20":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","21":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","22":"tag-starmer-labour-streeting-king-speech-leadership","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116566402475821418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}