Starmer latest: Streeting ‘poised for leadership bid’ as key ministerial aides resign in call for PM to quit – UK Times

Eighty MPs have signed Catherine West’s letter calling for Sir Keir Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure, the Press Association understands.

Most of these have publicly called for the prime minister to stand down, it is understood.

Keir Starmer is now expected to be told by cabinet ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting tomorrow that he needs to resign.

With almost 70 MPs now calling for him to resign and speculation that Wes Streeting is about to launch a leadership bid ministers are now understood to be preparing to tell Sir Keir “the game is up”.

It is understood that energy secretary Ed Miliband has already told Sir Keir that he needs to quit.

Meanwhile, Mr Streeting, home secretary Shabana Mahmood and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper have not made any intervention to support him since the election disaster for Labour last week.

Other influential figures who may be expected to deliver the coup de gras are welfare secretary Pat McFadden and housing secretary Steve Reid.Jonathan Reynolds, the chief whip, will also be the one to deliver the news that Sir Keir has lost the confidence of his MPs.

Melanie Ward has resigned as parliamentary private secretary to David Lammy and called for Sir Keir to resign as Labour leader – the fourth ministerial aide to do so tonight.

In a statement published on X, she wrote: “Our country faces enormouis challenges and we need a Labour government that can deliver the scale of change that this requires.

“It is clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change.”

A little earlier, Naushabah Khan resigned as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Cabinet Office, as she joined calls for new Labour leadership.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “It’s not something that I’ve taken lightly at all. I’ve been a committed Labour member for years, but I’ve got to the stage where as an MP who was elected in 2024, I’ve got deeply frustrated with how things are working at the minute.

“The reality is, Keir Starmer’s done a fantastic job in leading our party through an election and getting us to where we were in the majority we’ve got and I recognise that completely but unfortunately, these last local elections have shown us that it’s just not working any more when we speak to people out there on the doorsteps, and we hear time and time again that we don’t trust your leader, we don’t support your leader, we can’t back this.”

New analysis by marketing firm RRD has shown which prominent MPs would lose their seats if last week’s local election results were repeated in a general election.

With Reform UK sweeping previously safe Labour areas in the north of England and Wales, and the Greens taking seats in London, many Labour MPs have been left vulnerable.

According to RRD cabinet ministers Lisa Nandy, Yvette Cooper and Jonathan Reynolds, along with former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner would lose their seats to Reform.

Meanwhile, deputy leader Lucy Powell, current deputy prime minister David Lammy and veteran Labour MP Dianne Abbott would lose their seats to the Greens.

RRD found that there had been changes in their vote shares of between 18.3 per cent and 28.1 per cent.

The analysis would also hit scores of other Labour MPs with more than 60 now calling for Sir Keir to go.

The prime minister vowed not to walk away but his speech on Monday did little to convince the doubts of Labour MPs, more than 60 of whom have called for him to step aside.

The prime minister has vowed to fight to keep his job but the net is closing in on Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership and it appears time is running out.

It is becoming clear now that Labour MPs have lost confidence in his leadership and were not at all persuaded by his speech on Monday morning.

Now it appears that Wes Streeting is about to launch a leadership bid. That is almost certainly going to be followed by Angela Rayner.

The battle between left and right is about to break into a full civil war with Sir Keir swept away.

Mr Streeting cannot wait because if he does Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham may get back into parliament and become the obvious candidate to replace Starmer.

There appears to be few Starmer loyalists left after last week’s appalling election results.

Streeting and Rayner both have the charisma that Starmer is missing.

The key moment might come at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning when ministers may tell him he has to go.

Only one thing mattered about this speech, and that was to give the 81st Labour MP tempted to sign Catherine West’s nomination paper a reason to hold back. Having such a well-defined purpose meant that it was a good speech by Keir Starmer’s standards, because the content, delivery and staging were all bent towards a single goal.

That goal was to keep the number of MPs prepared to back a challenger below the 81 that would trigger a leadership election.

The content was calibrated with some skill to appeal to those MPs who are torn between the terror of the status quo and the roughly equal terror of the chaos that could be unleashed by change.

Health secretary Wes Streeting is believed to be preparing to launch a leadership bid as scores of Labour MPs joined demands that Sir Keir Starmer quits as prime minister.

The fevered speculation came as a series of junior members of the government allied to Mr Streeting resigned their positions with ministers expected to follow.

His make-or-break speech in central London was met with cheers from his audience in the room, but failed to impress furious backbenchers still reeling from last week’s historically poor election results.

More than 60 Labour MPs from all wings of the party called on the prime minister to go immediately or set a timetable for his departure, and there was growing speculation that Mr Streeting was about to launch a coup.

A Labour MP has said she has resigned as parliamentary private secretary to the Cabinet Office as she called for “new leadership, so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for”.

Naushabah Khan, the MP for Gillingham and Rainham said, in a post on X: “The message from last week’s elections was clear: the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of the public.

“Since being elected to serve the people of Gillingham & Rainham, I have always and will always put the interests of my constituents and our country first. It is with that commitment in mind that I have taken the difficult decision to resign my role as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Cabinet Office.

“Our country faces unprecedented challenges. The people of Gillingham & Rainham and the country deserve leadership that can deliver on scale. I did not enter politics to stand by while we fail.

“We need a clear change of direction now and no game playing. A Labour Government can and will rise to meet the moment if we act now.

“I am calling for new leadership, so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for.”