UK faces weeks of uncertainty over PM’s future
The UK government faces a long period of uncertainty after a week of maneuvers by the ruling Labor Party failed to unseat Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but started the clock on a leadership race that could last months.
Although Starmer has vowed to continue fighting after a painful week in which a cabinet member resigned, dozens of MPs called on the British prime minister to step down and new policy proposals were largely ignored, some observers believe it is only a matter of time before he steps aside.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the message of the past week was that “Labour seems to have decided that Keir Starmer will have to go”.
“And he’s going to have to go pretty quickly, and he’s going to have to be replaced by someone who, unlike him, can connect with the public.”
Speculation over Starmer’s future erupted into open rebellion on Thursday, when Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned in preparation for a possible leadership bid and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham announced his intention to return to parliament.
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced that she had resolved the tax issue that forced her to resign from the cabinet last year, thus freeing herself.
Starmer is under increasing pressure to resign after Labor performed poorly in local and regional elections last week, losing votes from both the populist UK Reform Party and the progressive Green Party.
The election grind has reinforced doubts among many party members about Starmer’s judgement, vision and leadership, less than two years after leading Labor to a landslide victory.
But the potential contest to unseat him is on hold for now as the party waits to see whether Burnham can win a by-election for a seat that would allow him to run in parliament.
Burnham is expected to challenge Starmer if he returns to the House of Commons.
On Friday, Labour’s executive approved Burnham’s candidacy for the seat, which was created when a Labor MP resigned to make way for the mayor of Greater Manchester.
The midterm election is expected to be held in the next five or more weeks.
If a challenge to Starmer emerges, Labour’s National Executive Committee will set the timetable for any leadership election.
The last competition lasted three months.
Government borrowing costs rose on Friday and the pound weakened as investors worried about ongoing turmoil in Westminster.
Sterling lost 1.3 percent of its value against the US dollar this week.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday called on party members to step away from the brink of a divisive leadership race that he said would prevent the government from grappling with issues such as the cost of living and boost the prospects of Reformation UK.
“This weekend people need to take a breather, look at what went wrong this week and come back next week ready to do what we said we would do – country first, party second – and focus on delivering the change we were elected to deliver,” he told the BBC.
