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Streeting, whose political ambitions have long been known, is considered one of a handful of people who could try to unseat Starmer.<\/p>\n
Another likely challenger, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said Thursday that she had reached an agreement with tax authorities to clear up questions about her taxes that forced her to leave the Cabinet last September. Rayner told the Guardian newspaper that Starmer should \u201creflect on\u201d his position, adding that she was ready to \u201cplay my part\u201d in any leadership election if Streeting were to trigger a contest.<\/p>\n
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Race to unseat Starmer heats up<\/p>\n
Pressure for Starmer to step aside has intensified since Labour suffered disastrous losses in local and regional elections last week, underscoring voter frustration with a government that has failed to deliver on pledges to boost economic growth and improve living standards for working people.<\/p>\n
A stagnant economy and stubbornly high consumer price inflation have made it difficult for Starmer\u2019s government to deliver on its promises after winning a landslide election victory less than two years ago.<\/p>\n
Starmer has vowed to remain in office, warning lawmakers that any leadership contest would plunge the government into \u201cchaos\u201d at a time it should be focused on issues like the cost of living crisis and war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
His effort to fight off a leadership challenge was bolstered Thursday morning by a rare bit of positive economic news.<\/p>\n
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Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic activity, grew 0.6% in the first three months of the year, compared with 0.2% in the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said.<\/p>\n
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said the figures showed that her policies were working and that renewed economic growth would allow the government to put more money into public services and programs to support those hit by the high cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that is only possible because of the economic stability that we have brought back to our economy,\u201d she told the BBC. \u201cAnd we shouldn\u2019t put that at risk by plunging the country in chaos at a time when there is conflict in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also positive news from the National Health Service. Waiting lines for NHS appointments \u2014 one of Streeting’s signature priorities \u2013 had fallen for the fifth straight month, boosting any potential candidacy.<\/p>\n
Streeting comes from the moderate wing of the left-leaning Labour Party, as does Starmer. Rayner is a favorite of many more left-wing voters, calling on the party to do more to boost the minimum wage and raise taxes on the rich.<\/p>\n
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Under Labour Party rules, any potential challenger to the prime minister would have to have the backing of 81 of the party\u2019s 403 members in the House of Commons. More than that number have publicly called on Starmer to quit in recent days.<\/p>\n
But other potential candidates may enter any race for the leadership.<\/p>\n
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely seen as a potential candidate, though he would have to find a way back into Parliament before he could run. Allies have suggested a sitting member of the House of Commons could resign to make way for Burnham to run in a special election.<\/p>\n
Burnham canceled his regular Thursday appearance on a local BBC radio program this week to \u201cprioritize discussions arising from last week\u2019s elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts to depose a Labour leader are relatively rare<\/p>\n
While the opposition Conservative Party has a history of deposing prime ministers while in office, Labour does not, said Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool.<\/p>\n
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\u201cLabour\u2019s political history has been about losing quite a lot of general elections, but they don\u2019t do ruthless on their leader,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t tend to depose their leader. The Conservatives, they readily do ruthless.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
While there is a chance that the current efforts to unseat Starmer will fizzle out, that would probably just delay the crisis for a few months given the level of fragmentation in British politics, Tonge added.<\/p>\n
If \u201ca civil war opens up within a Labour Party that\u2019s supposed to be governing us at present, it\u2019s an extraordinary state of affairs given it\u2019s less than two years since Keir Starmer won one of Labor\u2019s greatest election victories ever,\u201d Tonge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a huge parliamentary majority, he\u2019s got more than 400 MPs, and yet his prime ministership may be on the brink of disintegration,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Health Secretary Wes Streeting walks through the House of Commons to attend the State Opening of Parliament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[28914,10412,40963,34,40964,264,303,572,573,569,3215,3010,384,1436,10415],"class_list":{"0":"post-70987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-angela-rayner","10":"tag-britain-politics-starmer-streeting-rayner","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-jonathan-tonge","13":"tag-keir-starmer","14":"tag-middle-east","15":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","16":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","17":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","18":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","19":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","20":"tag-rachel-reeves","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116573145969199790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70987","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=70987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}