Reuters
source : reuters
Prime Minister Keir Starmer defied calls to resign on Tuesday, telling ministers he would get on with governing despite a “destabilising” 48 hours of growing calls to set out a timetable for his departure after a drubbing in local elections.
At a cabinet meeting, Starmer, in the top job for less than two years, repeated that, while he took responsibility for one of his Labour Party’s worst election defeats, there had been no official move to trigger a leadership contest. Several loyal ministers expressed their support for him.
It was the latest pledge from Starmer to press on with a premiership dogged by scandal and policy U-turns since he won a large majority at a national election in 2024, and has left the leader and Labour rebels in a stalemate.
Support in the wider Labour Party has also started to ebb away. Jess Phillips, a well-known Labour lawmaker and women’s rights campaigner, became one of four junior ministers to resign on Tuesday, joining more than 80 lawmakers who have publicly called on Starmer to set a timetable for leaving office.
All eyes were on a clutch of senior party figures, such as health minister Wes Streeting, who has made little secret of his ambition to become prime minister one day, to see whether they would move to challenge Starmer directly.
