Starmer
on the brink as cabinet ministers urge him to quit
Exclusive:
Senior cabinet ministers believed to be among those telling PM to oversee
orderly departure hours after he said he would fight any challenge
Pippa
Crerar and Jessica Elgot
Mon 11
May 2026 22.09 BST
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 understands that four senior cabinet ministers - Shabana Mahmood, the
home secretary, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, John Healey, the defence
secretary and the deputy prime minister David Lammy - were among those who
spoke to Starmer on Monday.
Some told
the prime minister he should oversee an orderly transition of power after
crushing election defeats risked ringing the death knell on his premiership.
Others
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.”
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.
Angela
Rayner, whose own chances of running are stalled until her tax affairs are
resolved, appeared to throw her weight behind Burnham, arguing that blocking
him had been a mistake and he should be allowed to return to parliament.
Her stock
as a potential successor to the Labour crown has fallen in recent weeks, as
Burnham’s has risen, with allies suggesting she was no longer determined to go
for the top job herself, and could instead be part of a team. But she would
still be expected to run if Burnham could not.
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.”
Ed
Miliband, the energy secretary, is understood to have urged Starmer to consider
setting out a timetable for his departure a week ago.
One
cabinet ally of Starmer urged MPs to pause. “Everybody needs to calm down and
take a deep breath. If you want to be seen as a credible governing party, the
idea that you come into power promising stability, and then 20 months later
decapitate your leader, is just madness,” they said.
But
Starmer’s speech did not stem the steady flow of statements from MPs which
called for the prime minister to announce an orderly transition.
At Monday
lunchtime, the co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, Chris Curtis, once
considered a loyalist group, said Starmer could not deliver the change the
country needed. “I therefore think it’s time for us to look for new
leadership,” he said.
“And I
think what that means is the prime minister rightly now setting out a timetable
and an orderly process for a leadership election, and one in which Labour has a
discussion about the vision for the country and what changes we think are
needed in order to face the very real challenges that Britain currently faces.”
Curtis
was the first MP known to be close to the health secretary, Streeting, who
called for Starmer to go. Other MPs have followed, including the Scottish
Labour MP Alan Gemmell and Streeting’s constituency neighbour Jas Athwal, as
well as his parliamentary private secretary, Joe Morris.
Allies of
Streeting said that he had no plans to speak on Monday and reiterated his
support for the prime minister. However, some MPs believe he is on the brink of
declaring he will run. Others suggested a big beast on the soft left – such as
Miliband – would run just to stop him.
Also on
Monday, four junior frontbenchers – all PPSs – resigned and called for Starmer
to go: Morris from the Department of Health, Tom Rutland from the Department
for Environment, Naushabah Khan in the Cabinet Office and Melanie Ward at the
Ministry of Justice.
After the
ministerial aides resigned, Downing Street moved to announce the appointment of
a new raft of PPSs, including Sean Woodcock to the Cabinet Office and David
Burton-Sampson to the Department of Health.
Others
who have called for the PM to go include many of the 2024 intake, including
David Smith, Luke Myer, Markus Campbell-Savours, Tony Vaughan, Fred Thomas and
Sarah Smith. Others included the ex-ministers Catherine McKinnell and Justin
Madders.
But
others put out statements saying they feared a change of prime minister would
play into the hands of Nigel Farage.
In a
Labour MPs’ WhatsApp group, Natasha Irons, MP for Croydon East, wrote: “Bottom
line, changing leader because Nigel Farage has forced us to is not something
any of us can come back from. Anyone who thinks we can needs to wake up.”
Another
MP said: “I think we have to face up to the fact everyone one of them is
fucking useless. Andy’s strategy has been a disaster. Angela has bottled it. Ed
is clearly hiding to nothing. Wes is awol. God knows what Catherine West is
doing. I am not quite sure how we ended up here.”
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