Prime Minister will fight any attempt to replace him, friends say
The prime minister’s allies have made clear he will fight any challenge to his leadership from Labor MPs.
Sir Keir Starmer’s loyalists fear his job could be under immediate threat, perhaps just after the Budget in a fortnight.
Critics say this is evidence that Downing Street is in “full bunker mode” and that it “won’t help the government get out of the hole we’re in”.
Sir Keir’s friends are deeply concerned about what they see as a plot to replace him and are trying to make clear what they see as serious risks to the leadership challenge.
Names being mooted by Labor MPs as potential candidates to replace Sir Keir include some of his closest cabinet allies, notably health secretary Wes Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Some also speculate about the ambitions of backbenchers, including energy secretary Ed Miliband and former transport secretary Louise Haigh.
“He will fight this,” one minister said, before referring to the crucial 2021 by-election in which Labor lost to the Conservatives, prompting Sir Keir to consider resigning as Labor leader.
“This is not a Hartlepool moment,” they added.
“He is one of only two survivors to win a general election for Labour. It would be madness to run against him 17 months later.”
For months, many in the Labor Party have acknowledged that the government faces a possible crisis point following devolved elections in Scotland and Wales and local elections in many parts of England next May.
Labor is generally expected to perform poorly in these elections, but there are growing concerns from some in the party that the party may not be able to wait until then to consider a change of leader.
Downing Street is aware of the potential imminence of such a threat to them.
One senior Labor MP told us: “It’s all very well to say wait for the locals, but this is me sending my activist base into arms fire. I can’t lose all my councillors.”
Another Labor source said: “The list of reasons why people are moving after the Budget grows by the day.
“If Wes is brave and takes action he could be rewarded as prime minister by Christmas.”
Streeting’s ambition is viewed with particular suspicion by some loyal to the prime minister.
A spokesman for Streeting told the BBC that “these allegations are absolutely untrue”.
“Wes’s focus has been entirely on reducing waiting lists for the first time in 15 years, recruiting 2,500 more GPs and rebuilding the NHS that saved his life,” he added.
The health secretary will hold a series of interviews on Wednesday morning that will focus on his plans to shake up the NHS in England.
A government source said Downing Street had “gone into full bunker mode and attacked its most loyal cabinet members for absolutely no reason”.
“Unfortunately Keir’s team have a habit of briefing against their own people – they’ve done it to Angela, Lisa, Lucy, now it’s Wes’ turn,” the source added.
“A cyclical firing squad will not help the government get out of the hole we are in,” a government source said, referring to former and current deputy leaders Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell and Culture Minister Lisa Nandy respectively.
The Prime Minister’s supporters are telling Labor MPs they should be careful what they wish for.
They argue that the leadership race would plunge the party into the chaos associated with the final years of the Conservative Party’s mandate, which ended last year, and that a leader without his own authority would come to power in the country.
They are trying to convince their colleagues that a contest could also destabilize international markets and jeopardize the prime minister’s good relationship with President Trump.
But others, including some ministers, are concerned about what they perceive as the government’s desperate situation.
“Terrible. It’s [Starmer] He is hated there. It’s worse than it was under Corbyn. “I don’t see how this will be sustainable until May,” one minister said.
Idea surveys show that Sir Keir is not well-liked, perhaps even most disliked British prime minister in the history of modern opinion polls.
Polls also show he has the support of Labour. no more than one-fifth of voters in recent months.
One minister backing the Prime Minister summed up the mood among his colleagues: “There are those who see this as a choice between a Labor government and perfection.
“The closer they can get us to the policies they see as perfect, the happier they are.
“But the choice is not between us and perfection, but between us and Reformation.”
The rise of Reform UK has focused minds on Downing Street in recent months.
The Prime Minister sees Labour’s battle with Reform leader Nigel Farage as generation-defining, with the prospect of losing to Reform in the general election far worse than Labor’s losses to the Conservatives.
He believes he has the energy and resources to take on Farage.
But a growing number of his colleagues remain unconvinced.
“We’re not like the Conservatives. We’re not going to change leaders in Parliament more than once,” one of the first elected Labor MPs told us last year.
