LONDON(National Times)- Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Monday to prove his doubters wrong and stem mounting calls for him to step down after disastrous local and regional elections for his ruling Labour party.
But more than 60 of Labour’s 403 MPs asked him to step down, unconvinced by his pledge to make the party bolder and better to assuage disgruntled voters impatient for change.
They included four government aides who resigned their positions.
The Times newspaper reported that the prime minister has been advised by interior minister Shabana Mahmood and two other ministers to consider setting out a timeline for his departure.
Joe Morris, who was a parliamentary private secretary to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, widely rumoured to be considering a leadership challenge wrote on X that it was “now clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change”.
Another, Tom Rutland, who was an aide to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, said Starmer had “lost authority” among Labour MPs and “will not be able to regain it”.
Melanie Ward, who was an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, called for new leadership.
“Keir Starmer did important work to change the Labour Party, and governing in a time like this will never be easy,” she said on X.
“But the message from last week’s elections was clear; the prime minister has lost the confidence of the public to lead this change.”
New leadership needed
Cabinet Office aide Naushabah Khan, who also resigned, added: “I am calling for new leadership so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for.”
Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs – 20 per cent of the party in parliament — to trigger a leadership contest.
But that would likely spark a damaging bout of infighting, with MPs from the left and right of the party battling to position their preferred candidate or shore up Starmer.
Starmer, 63, came to power in July 2024 after a landslide election win that ended 14 years of Conservative party rule dominated by austerity measures, infighting over Brexit and its Covid response.
But he has swerved from one policy misstep to another, and became mired in a scandal over the appointment, and sacking, of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington, after revelations about the envoy’s ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He has not yet spurred economic growth to help British citizens suffering with the cost of living, but has been praised for resisting US President Donald Trump over Iran.
Last week, voters issued a damning indictment of his 22 months in power in local and regional elections, which saw huge gains for the hard-right Reform UK party and the left-wing populist Greens at Labour’s expense.
Acknowledgement
In a crunch speech on Monday, Starmer acknowledged the public frustration with the state of the country, politics and his leadership.
“I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will,” he said.
He promised “a bigger response” rather than “incremental change” in areas such as economic growth, European ties and energy.
