Sir Keir Starmer is expected to meet with Wes Streeting on Wednesday morning (Image: PA)
Health Secretary Wes Streeting – seen as a leading contender to enter a future leadership race – is due to hold talks with the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning. He expected to ask Sir Keir how he plans to “get us out of this mess”.
A belearguered Sir Keir Starmer is clinging to power in the face of ministerial resignations and scores of Labour MPs calling on him to go.
The Labour leader’s hopes that ministers would not turn on him were dashed when four resigned during the course of the day. The biggest blow came when Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, quit.
A milestone was passed when the number of MPs calling for the Prime Minister to bring the curtain down on his time in Downing Street passed 81 – enough to trigger a leadership contest if they unite behind a single candidate.
Deputy prime minister David Lammy insists no rival is in a position to challenge the PM because: “No one seems to have the names to stand up against Keir Starmer.”
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The Prime Minister survived the morning’s cabinet meeting and announced his determination to “get on with governing”. Rather than discuss last week’s catastrophic election results, which saw Labour lose control of Wales and English councils which were once Labour strongholds, Sir Keir is understood to have asked ministers who wanted to discuss his future to talk to him individually.
He was bolstered when more than 100 Labour MPs signed a statement declaring: “This is no time for a leadership contest.”
Sir Keir will hope that his opponents within the party fail to unite around a rival. He is helped that Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, seen by many as a likely contender in a future leadership contest, lacks a seat in Westminster.
However, the depth of disillusionment with the prime minister spilled into the open shortly after 9am when Miatta Fahnbulleh, was the minister for devolution, faith and communities, published her resignation statement.
“Our country faces enormous challenges and people are crying out for the scale of change that this requires,” she said. “The public does not believe that you can lead this change – and nor do I.”
The PM suffered a much bigger challenge to his authority at lunchtime when Jess Phillips, one of the highest profile Labour MPs, delivered a scathing critique of his leadership.
She said: “I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things, however I have seen first-hand how that is not enough. The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed.”
The Birmingham Yardley MP condemned his failure to legislate to ensure children cannot take naked photos of themselves.
She asked: “How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dilly dallied and worried about tech bosses?”
Former Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips (Image: PA)
Alex Davies-Jones, a Welsh MP who had served as minister for victims, pointed to the party’s electoral disaster in Wales in her resignation statement.
The Pontypridd MP said: “The scale of the electoral defeats at the Senedd Cymru and across the United Kingdom have been catastrophic. The country has spoken and we must listen.”
She added: “I implore you to act in the country’s interest and set out a timetable for your departure.”
Health minister Zubir Ahmed, widely seen as an ally of ambitious Health Secretary Wes Streeting, also resigned, citing a “lack of values-driven leadership” and saying the public has “irretrievably lost confidence in you as Prime Minister”.
The ministerial departures are serious setbacks for Sir Keir but by early evening he had been spared seeing a cabinet minister quit his team. A spokesman for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she would not resign and was “cracking on with the job”.
But in a reminder of the electoral hammering Labour has suffered, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth was nominated to be the first non-Labour first minister in Wales’s Senedd. Labour’s Welsh Secretary, Jo Stevens, said she looked forward to “working constructively” with a Plaid Government.
John McDonnell blasted a ‘coup’ attempt (Image: Daily Mirror)
The Labour turmoil has exposed deep divides in the party. Left-wingers will fear that if an early leadership contest takes place before Mr Burnham is able to secure a seat in Westminster then health Secretary Mr Streeting will stand his best chance of succeeding Sir Keir.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Streeting of launching a “coup”, saying: “Wes Streeting has launched [a] coup for fear of a democratic process [and] whilst candidates are blocked.”
Marie Rimmer, the 79-year-old MP for St Helens South and Whiston, said it was “absolute nonsense” she had engaged in “recent discussions” with Mr Burnham about him standing in her seat.
Defenders of Sir Keir who fear a leadership contest will strengthen support for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK will continue to urge Labour MPs to stick with the PM.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said: “There’s a lot of fantasy politics going on at the moment. Keir Starmer won a historic majority less than two years ago at the ballot box alongside all of us in the Labour party.”
Warren Stephens, the United States’s ambassador, intervened, saying the “frequent turnover” of British prime ministers creates a “problem” for Washington DC in building personal ties.
He said: “I think the policies don’t really change that much so long as the party in power is still in power. But certainly the ability to have personal relationships matters, and to the extent that there’s frequent turnover – that’s a problem.”