At least 81 members of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party have publicly demanded that Prime Minister Keir Starmer either resign or announce a timetable for his departure, deepening the biggest internal crisis of his leadership so far.
The MPs, including Shabana Mahmood, represent around 20 per cent of Labour’s 403 lawmakers in parliament, the threshold required to trigger a formal leadership contest within the party.
Despite the mounting pressure, Starmer has insisted he will remain in office.
“The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,” Starmer told cabinet ministers on Monday.
“The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.
“The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet.”
The rebellion follows disastrous local election results for Labour last week, with the party losing hundreds of councillors to the right-wing Reform UK and the left-leaning Green Party.
Labour also lost its long-standing political dominance in Wales and suffered heavy losses to the Scottish National Party in the devolved parliament in Edinburgh.
The poor results have intensified scrutiny of Starmer’s leadership after months of political turmoil. The prime minister faced criticism over his decision to appoint, and later dismiss, Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the United States. Mandelson’s past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein fuelled backlash against the government.
Starmer has also come under fire over the government’s handling of the economy, with many Britons continuing to struggle with the rising cost of living.
Within Labour, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner are widely viewed as the leading contenders to replace Starmer if a leadership contest is triggered.
