LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s future is uncertain as key Labour Party members prepare to challenge his leadership.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting quit embattled Starmer’s Cabinet Thursday in what is expected to be a precursor to challenging his leadership. Streeting is the first Cabinet member to resign.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said she resolved a tax issue that forced her resignation last year, allowing her to also consider a challenge. Rayner told the Guardian that Starmer should “reflect on” his position. Starmer is in a precarious position after Labour’s heavy losses in recent elections. More than 80 lawmakers have urged him to set a timetable for his departure. Starmer says he has no intention to stand down.
The embattled prime minister is in a precarious position after the huge losses Labour suffered in local and regional elections last week. More than 80 lawmakers in the House of Commons have since urged him to set a timetable for his departure, though no one has yet challenged Starmer directly.
Starmer says he has no intention to stand down, and has his own supporters within the party. More than 100 lawmakers have signed a letter saying it’s “no time” for a leadership contest.
Streeting or Rayner would each need signatures from at least 81 Labour lawmakers to launch a challenge.
Here's the latest:
Here are some of the key comments of his letter, which appear to be the launchpad of his leadership campaign:
Streeting told Starmer that it is “clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election” and urged him to set a timetable for his departure that allows for a “broad” field of candidates.
He said Starmer had shown “courage and statesmanship on the world stage — not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran,” but highlighted what he considered Starmer’s political failings.
He also said he had informed Starmer that he had lost confidence in his leadership and that it would be “dishonourable and unprincipled“ for him to stay in post.
Streeting voiced his worries about the future of the U.K. in light of last week’s “unprecedented” election results.
Streeting added that it is incumbent on progressives to “confront” this threat, but that they are “increasingly losing faith” that Labour can rise to its “historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting quit embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Cabinet Thursday in what is expected to be a precursor to challenging his leadership.
Streeting is the first Cabinet member to resign as Starmer faces pressure to step down after the Labour Party’s disastrous results last week in local and regional elections.
Streeting, whose political ambitions have long been known, is considered one of a handful of people who could try to unseat Starmer.
For the past decade or so, since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, leadership battles have become a regular feature of British politics.
If Keir Starmer were to be ousted in any leadership battle to come, the U.K. would embark on its 7th prime minister since the Brexit vote first prompted David Cameron to stand down.
The Conservative Party then got into the habit of changing leaders. From Theresa May to Boris Johnson to Liz Truss and finally Rishi Sunak.
When Sunak lost the 2024 general election to the Labour Party, it was widely assumed that stability would return to the top of government, with Starmer at least set fair for the length of his five-year mandate.
But changing leaders is easier said than done. No Labour prime minister has ever been dislodged, though Tony Blair announced his plan to resign in 2007 after a series of low-level resignations.
With leadership speculation swirling, stronger-than-anticipated U.K. economic growth figures have been largely ignored.
On coming to power in July 2024, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said raising the country’s anemic growth rates over the previous 15 years or so was his number one priority.
Official figures on Thursday showed that growth was heading in the right direction in the first three months of 2026, even after accounting for the negative impact emanating from the start of the Iran war.
The Office for National Statistics said growth rose by 0.6% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, with most sectors advancing. More growth means more tax revenues to fund Labour’s priorities and potentially lower borrowing.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, who has been widely blamed for many of the policy missteps that have hurt Labour’s popularity, warned colleagues not to put the economy “at risk” by “plunging the country into chaos.”
A former Royal Marine who served with distinction in Afghanistan is being touted as a potential candidate to replace Starmer in the event of a leadership battle.
Al Carns, who is the armed forces minister in Starmer’s Labour government, has seen his stock rise within the party ever since he was first elected to Parliament in Labour’s 2024 landslide election victory.
Carns, 46, has a captivating personal story that could attract support among the different factions within Labour. In addition to his distinguished service in Afghanistan, which saw him awarded the Military Cross in 2011, Carns was born in a working-class family in the Scottish oil town of Aberdeen to a single mum.
“We do not need more slogans, strategies, press releases or commissions,” Carns said in an article for The New Statesman magazine published on Thursday, “We need action.”
His weakness is likely to be his lack of experience. Replacing a leader who has been criticized for his lack of political nous with a relative newcomer, however compelling their backstory, could be risky.
Efforts to unseat Starmer are likely to break out into open rebellion Thursday, with one potential rival expected to announce his bid for the job and another clearing the way for her to enter any future leadership contest.
Allies of Health Secretary Wes Streeting say he will make an announcement later in the day after garnering enough support from lawmakers of the governing Labour Party to challenge Starmer for leadership of the party and the government.
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 “reflect on” his position, adding that she was ready to “play my part” in any leadership election if Streeting were to trigger a contest.
Pressure for Starmer to step aside or face a leadership challenge has intensified since the Labour Party suffered disastrous losses in local and regional elections last week.
