Blow to Keir Starmer as ‘half of Brits think he should step down as PM’ | Politics | News
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will remain Labor leader and lead the party to victory in the next general election – but half of Britons disagree. The Prime Minister has faced growing calls to resign amid an ongoing row over Peter Mandelson’s vetting for the position of US ambassador and allegations that he misled Parliament, which Mandelson rejects. While divisions are said to have emerged in the Cabinet over his handling of the process, including the decision to sack former Foreign Office official Sir Olly Robbins, Sir Keir insisted in an interview this week that he would fight the next general election and that he thought Labor could win.
But new polling reveals 50% of Britons think the Prime Minister should resign, while 68% think he is unlikely to win the 2029 election. Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, which conducted the research as part of its Political Pulse survey, said: LBC: “Labour’s path forward is unclear as speculation mounts about Keir Starmer’s future.”
He added: “6 in 10 people have a negative view of him and half think he should resign. But sentiments have not changed much since the autumn and it is not clear who will replace him.”
Dissatisfaction with Sir Keir’s handling of the Mandelson scandal and expected losses in next month’s local elections could prompt a leadership fight between the main candidates, including former deputy Chancellor Angela Rayner, ‘King in the North’ Andy Burnham and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband (the latter the worst-case successor to Express readers).
Despite mounting speculation, the Prime Minister told the Sunday Times he would “of course” remain leader. “We didn’t wait 14 years to be elected, we didn’t change the Labor Party, we didn’t do everything necessary to win the election and gain the mandate for change, not to deliver it,” he added.
Sir Keir also said the next election will be about “What is it like to be British?” He said, “The Labor Party is against Reform.” It challenges “patriotic values such as tolerance, kindness and diversity.”
But Ipsos data paints a broader picture; It reflects local election forecasts that suggest the Green Party will also score big victories on May 7 as Britain’s political landscape expands significantly from its traditional two-party structure.
The poll of more than 2,000 British adults between 17 and 21 April, weighted according to the profile of the population, showed the Greens coming out on top with 28 per cent of public support, followed by Reform on 27 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 23 per cent, the Conservatives on 22 per cent and Labor on just 20 per cent.
