British PM Starmer remains defiant in face of Cabinet rebellion

LONDON: British prime minister Keir Starmer came out fighting for his job on Tuesday amid a brewing rebellion in his ranks, with a chunk of ministers calling for him to set out a timetable for a leadership change.

Starmer remained defiant during a crunch Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, telling his team that he intends to "get on with governing" as he tries to move on from the Labour Party's disastrous local election under his watch.

Even as pressure mounted further with the resignation of a lesser-known junior housing minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh, Starmer was adamant that the required threshold of 20 per cent MPs to challenge the Labour leader had not been met.

"As I said yesterday, I take responsibility for these election results, and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised," Starmer told his Cabinet.



"The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government, and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families. The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.

"The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a Cabinet," he said.

His statement could be seen as a dare by some Labour members of Parliament who have been pressuring Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure.

"Our country faces enormous challenges and people are crying out for the scale of change that this requires. The public does not believe that you can lead this change and nor do I," said Fahnbulleh, in her ministerial resignation letter to Starmer.

"Therefore, I urge you to do the right thing for the country and the Party and set a timetable for an orderly transition so that a new team can deliver the change we promised the country," she said.

It follows former Indo-Pacific minister Catherine West "giving notice" that she was collecting names to push Starmer into setting a timetable for the "election of a new leader in September".

At least 81 Labour MPs are required to mount a public challenge to pave the way for a leadership election.

According to media reports, some senior Cabinet figures, including home secretary Shabana Mahmood and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, are among those calling for Starmer to go. Others like deputy prime minister David Lammy and defence secretary John Healey are also believed to be in favour of an orderly transition plan.

The frontrunners in the race to replace Starmer include Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, health secretary Wes Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

While a more immediate timeline would favour Streeting, a staggered one for September would benefit Burnham as he needs to contest a byelection to be elected an MP before being eligible for the top job.

"The Labour Party has a process for triggering a leadership election. That has not happened, so we all intend to get on with our jobs and that's what I'm going to do," UK housing secretary Steve Reed told reporters after Tuesday's tense Cabinet meeting.

"There is a process to challenge the leader, nobody has made that challenge," added UK technology secretary Liz Kendall.

However, despite such voices of support, there is a growing sense that Starmer's reset speech on Monday had done little to reassure his party colleagues that he is the best choice to continue leading the Labour Party.

"I'm not going to shy away from the fact that I've got some doubters, including in my own party and I'm not going to shy away from the fact that I have to prove them wrong, and I will," Starmer had declared.

But as junior ministers begin resigning and behind-the-scenes pressure mounts, the window for him to get a chance to prove his doubters wrong continues to close rapidly.