Starmer revolt deepens as ministers quit and Labour MPs demand his exit
Labour MP Naushabah Khan said she has resigned as parliamentary private secretary to the Cabinet Office marking the latest defiant resignation.
The first members of the government have resigned in protest amid growing calls for Sir Keir Starmer to quit in response to last week’s disastrous local election results.
Labour MP Naushabah Khan, parliamentary private secretary to the Cabinet Office, announced her resignation late on Monday as she called for “new leadership" following the departure of three members of the. government.
Junior member of government Tom Rutland, a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, became the first members of government to resign earlier in the. afternoon, as they called on Sir Keir Starmer to step aside.
Joe Morris, a PPS to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, soon followed suit, and Sally Jameson, a PPS at the Home Office, joined calls for Sir Keir to resign.
The resignations follow a growing sense of unrest within government, as 52 MPs called on the Prime Minister to quit.
Rutland wrote on X: "It is with regret that I believe the prime minister should now set out a timetable for his departure and for a new leader to be chosen to lead the Labour Party and the country."
Speculation about the Prime Minister’s future has intensified since Thursday’s elections, in which Labour lost almost 1,500 English councillors, went backwards in Scotland and slumped to third in Wales.
On top of the MPs already calling for Sir Keir to go, others have suggested they could do so if he does not change course rapidly.
In a speech in central London on Monday, Sir Keir said he took “responsibility” for the losses but would fight on.
“I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I’ve got some doubters, including in my own party,” he said. “I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I have to prove them wrong, and I will.”
Monday’s speech had been billed as a move to set out sweeping changes needed to tackle the “big challenges” facing Britain, and was widely seen as a “make-or-break” moment for the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir set out a number of measures, including legislation to nationalise British Steel, a ban on “far-right agitators” coming to the UK for a planned march on Saturday and a plan to put the UK “at the heart of Europe”.
He cast the current political moment as a “battle for the soul” of the UK, warning that if Labour failed, the country would head down “a very dark path”.
A handful of backbenchers spoke up in support of the Prime Minister afterwards, with Macclesfield MP Tim Roca and Gedling’s Michael Payne saying Sir Keir had demonstrated he understood “the scale of the challenge” facing the country.
But others from across the party – going well beyond the Prime Minister’s usual critics on the left – continued to say he should step down.
Technology & Business Editor
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
