{"id":565828,"date":"2025-11-12T16:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565828\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T16:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:48:21","slug":"embattled-uk-prime-minister-keir-starmer-insists-team-united-as-rumours-swirl-of-leadership-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565828\/","title":{"rendered":"Embattled UK prime minister Keir Starmer insists team ‘united’ as rumours swirl of leadership challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted he runs a “united team” after a senior minister was forced to repeatedly deny that he planned to oust the embattled premier.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir’s comments came after Downing Street sources said Britain’s leader would fight off any leadership challenge, as the anonymous briefing exposed tensions at the heart of the beleaguered government.<\/p>\n

Rumours are swirling in the UK parliament that some ministers, including his Health Secretary Wes Streeting, are plotting to challenge Sir Keir following a budget due later this month, in which Labour is expected to break a manifesto pledge on raising income tax.<\/p>\n

Several media reports quoting anonymous Downing Street sources appeared overnight on Wednesday, berated supposed plotters and vowing the prime minister would fight any challenge to his authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Keir, whose poll ratings have sunk since a landslide election win in July 2024, took to parliament on Wednesday, local time, to try to set the record straight, saying he “never authorised attacks” on his ministers.<\/p>\n

“Any attack on any member of my cabinet is completely unacceptable,” he told the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never authorised attacks on cabinet members. I appointed them to their posts because they’re the best people to carry out their jobs \u2026 This is a united team and we are delivering together.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

After winning a landslide in July last year, polls show UK Labour’s popularity has sagged. (Reuters: Jack Taylor)<\/p>\n

He also defended his chief adviser, Morgan McSweeney, after Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch named him when describing Sir Keir’s Downing Street operation as “toxic”.<\/p>\n

His political spokesperson described the briefing and resulting reports as “frustrating distractions from the work that the government is doing”.<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting, who is widely reported to have ambitions to lead the party, rejected accusations made about him in several outlets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That briefing is categorically untrue,” Mr Streeting told BBC Radio.<\/p>\n

\"Wes<\/p>\n

Heath Minister Wes Streeting is considered one of the most likely people to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister. (AP: Jon Super)<\/p>\n

Doing the early media round of talking to broadcasters, the health minister said the briefings of a challenge were self-defeating because they gave the impression Sir Keir was fighting for his job when he was instead focused on fighting to improve Britain.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going to demand the prime minister’s resignation,” he told Sky News UK.<\/p>\n

“I support the prime minister. I have done since he was elected leader of the Labour Party.”<\/p>\n

British government bond prices fell early on Wednesday and underperformed against US and German bonds, possibly hinting at investor unease over Sir Keir’s prospects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pound fell by around a third of a cent against the US dollar.<\/p>\n

Will Keir Starmer become the latest UK prime minister to be ousted? <\/a><\/p>\n

A successful party conference speech has rallied the troops and offered the Labour leader a reprieve from mounting speculation about his leadership, but for how long?<\/p>\n

Market strategists said investors were concerned that if Sir Keir was no longer prime minister it could potentially lead to a left-leaning candidate taking over and raising government borrowing.<\/p>\n

Much of Labour’s unpopularity has stemmed from tax rises and failed attempts at cutting welfare spending, showing the potential for the budget to be the next flashpoint.<\/p>\n

Two Labour politicians expressed exasperation at the briefing, saying it underlined what they said was a poorly functioning team around Sir Keir in Downing Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One said on condition of anonymity that it felt “very end of days”.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls suggest Sir Keir is one of the most unpopular prime ministers of all time, and his party has trailed Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party for months.<\/p>\n

But it is particularly difficult to oust a Labour leader because any challenge would need the backing of 20 per cent of the party’s MPs, which roughly means around 80 of them agreeing on an alternative candidate.<\/p>\n

The centre-left Labour Party is now bracing for the budget on November 26, with Finance Minister Rachel Reeves suggesting she will have to increase taxes to fill a fiscal black hole, a year after she hiked levies by 40 billion pounds ($80.2 billion) in what she said was a one-off event.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted he runs a “united team” after a senior minister was forced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[54408,748,34537,393,4884,8414,3181,1144,712,520,16,15,1764,3595],"class_list":{"0":"post-565828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-briefing","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-challenge","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-labour","15":"tag-leadership","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-sir-keir-starmer","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales","22":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115537754562990439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}