Will there be a general election? Here’s how – and what could happen next if Starmer leaves office

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will not go anywhere and will fight any attempt by his own party to knock him out of 10th place after more than 80 Labor MPs called on him to stand down.

But history is full of prime ministers who couldn’t choose the time of their departure, from Margaret Thatcher to the more recent Liz Truss.

Here we examine how the Labor leader can be removed from Downing Street and ensure he becomes the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade.

Senior ministers started to resign

So far we have received resignations from ministerial staff and a junior minister, but the Prime Minister will find it difficult to stand firm in the face of a challenge from one of the “big monsters” rumored to replace him.

This could include Health Minister Wes Streeting, who has so far been reluctant to take the first step and is aware that he will have to resign from the cabinet to do so.

That’s what Rishi Sunak did, in a move that hastened the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership. But Mr Johnson’s allies never forgave Mr Sunak for it and he faced accusations from doorstep Tory voters that he was a traitor.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to have told the Prime Minister that he should consider announcing a timetable for his departure, as did energy minister Ed Miliband, but neither resigned from cabinet to force the issue.

Other senior politicians who are not in the cabinet and could declare they want to enter the leadership contest include Angela Rayner, but she is thought to still need more time to sort out her tax affairs. Andy Burnham cannot step into the ring yet because he is not in parliament, so his supporters are calling for a staggered timetable for Sir Keir’s departure.

Challenger gets the numbers to force a contest

The bar for triggering a leadership race within the Labor Party is actually quite low. Although of course the risks are high.

To start a contest, an MP is needed to get the support of 20 percent of the party in Parliament (81 MPs). A number of people have already publicly called for Sir Keir to go.

The Prime Minister automatically has the right to fight in this race, and his allies have made it clear that they will do so.

Will there be a general election?

In a word, no.

The governing party decides who their leaders will be and become the next prime minister.

There is no need to hold a general election just because there is a new leader.

The demand for Sir Keir to stand down follows last week’s disastrous local election results in England, Scotland and Wales, where both Reform and the Greens took millions of votes away from Labour.

The party is in no mood to go to the polls again anytime soon.