*Starmer Refuses To Go As Crucial Cabinet Meeting Nears
Keir Starmer’s grip on power appeared to be slipping away on Monday as Cabinet Ministers urged him to set out a timetable for his departure and more than 70 Labour MPs publicly called for him to stand down.
The Prime Minister warned the country would “never forgive” Labour for plunging into the chaos of a leadership election – and that he intended to prove his doubters inside and outside the party wrong.
The Guardian UK, which broke the latest development, understands that two senior Cabinet Ministers – Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary – told the Prime Minister he should oversee an orderly transition of power after crushing election defeats risked ringing the death knell on his premiership.
At least two others – believed to be John Healey and David Lammy – discussed with Starmer how they should take a “responsible, dignified, orderly” approach to what might follow.
Several others – including Richard Hermer and Steve Reed – were defiant, urging him to fight on.
One Cabinet Minister said: “In the end Keir has listened to Cabinet Ministers – there are differences about where this will go and what is in the best interests of party and country. He’ll have to make a decision about what he’s going to do before Cabinet tomorrow (today).”
Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds is understood to have spent the day in Downing Street, conveying the mood among backbenchers yet to go public to the No 10 operation.
Among those outside the Cabinet publicly calling for Starmer to resign were close allies of Wes Streeting, who urged Starmer to set out a “swift” timetable, in what appeared to be an orchestrated move. But one close friend suggested the Health Secretary had “no plans to pull the house down.”
Supporters of Andy Burnham also published letters calling for the Prime Minister to go.
Sources on Labour’s ruling national executive committee, which blocked the Greater Manchester Mayor from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection in January, suggested they could take a different course next time.
“The officers group could move if there was clearly a question mark over political authority. But there would have to be a byelection called first before we know whether that is the case,” one said.
Another said “things could move” should Starmer clearly not have support to continue as PM.
Several sources said how angry some Cabinet Ministers were with Burnham and Streeting, who they believed to have precipitated the leadership crisis by sanctioning allies to call for Starmer’s departure. “They’ve got their hands all over this,” one said.
Not Quitting -Starmer
Starmer and his allies struggled to fight a rearguard action to shore up his leadership, unlike in February after Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader in Scotland, called for him to go, when Cabinet Ministers came out en masse in support.
Starmer survived an immediate threat after Catherine West, a potential stalking-horse candidate, changed course and said she was gathering names of MPs who supported an orderly transition instead.
More than 70, including several junior backbenchers, from across the party’s ranks said Starmer had failed to convince them he had what it took to lead the country into the next election. They represent 25% of the party’s backbenchers.
In a speech earlier on Monday, Starmer said he would not resign and would prove his doubters wrong, and he would fight any leadership challenge.
“I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again, chaos that did lasting damage to this country. A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again,” he said.
“I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics, and some people are frustrated with me. I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.”
*PHOTO CAPTION: Starmer.
