U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told members of his Cabinet on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning as calls inside his Labour Party for him to step down grew louder.
Starmer is attempting to shore up support inside his Cabinet following a febrile few days within the wake of hefty losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour, took place as around 80 Labour backbenchers, or nearly a fifth of the party’s representation within the House of Commons, said Starmer should stand down, or not less than set out a timetable for his departure. Under Labour party rules, 81 lawmakers are needed to formally trigger a leadership contest.
Nonetheless, nobody has yet announced they’ll stand as a candidate for the leadership, directly difficult Starmer.
On Tuesday, junior minister Miatta Fahnbulleh became the primary member of his government to step down, urging Starmer “to do the suitable thing for the country” and set a timetable for his departure.
Fahnbulleh, who is taken into account to be on the left of the party, said she was happy with her service, but that the federal government hadn’t acted with the vision, pace and mandate for change it had been given by voters.
“Nor have we governed as a Labour Party clear about our values and robust in our convictions,” she said.
Despite winning a landslide election victory in July 2024, Labour’s popularity has sunk and Starmer is getting much of the blame.
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The explanations are varied, including a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgment — especially over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington despite the envoy’s ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
At first of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week’s local elections across the U.K. but that he would fight on. Labour was squeezed from right and left, losing votes to each the anti-immigrant Reform UK and the “eco-populist” Green Party, in addition to nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales. The result reflects the increasing fragmentation of U.K. politics, long dominated by Labour and the Conservatives.
Starmer said that there’s a process to oust a frontrunner and that it hadn’t been triggered.
Under Labour’s rules, candidates will need to have the support of a fifth of the party’s House of Commons lawmakers — a number that currently stands at 81.
“The country expects us to get on with governing,” Starmer said. “The past 48 hours have been destabilizing for presidency and that has an actual economic cost for our country and for families.”
That cost was evident in financial markets on Tuesday, with the rate of interest charged on British government bonds up by greater than those of comparable nations — that shows that investors are putting the next price on taking over government debt.
As Cabinet ministers left 10 Downing Street, some voiced their support for the embattled prime minister.
Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said no one publicly challenged Starmer on the meeting, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the prime minister was showing “really steadfast leadership.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, long believed to be preparing for a leadership challenge against Starmer, didn’t comment as he left the meeting.
“Wes Streeting, do you wish the job, or not?” one person yelled from across the road. “Are you measuring the curtains?”
He was amongst senior ministers who dodged a barrage of shouted questions from a gaggle of reporters outside.
Though nobody in his Cabinet has challenged Starmer, he will likely be aware that another person inside the parliamentary party could trigger the leadership process.
The following U.K. national election doesn’t must be held until 2029, but British politics allows parties to alter leader midterm without the necessity for a general election.
Starmer had hoped to regain momentum with a speech on Monday intended to kickstart his fightback, and an ambitious set of legislative plans to be set out by King Charles III on the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.
© 2026 The Canadian Press