UK govt aides quit as 60 Labour MPs urge Starmer to go
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has come under renewed pressure as four deputy ministers resigned and more than 60 Labor MPs publicly called for Starmer’s resignation after a call for another chance apparently fell on deaf ears.
Starmer had vowed to be bolder in his speech to party loyalists in London, making an impassioned appeal to both his party and voters to stick with him and avoid a leadership race that he said would only bring chaos.
But his speech, in which he admitted he had been too timid in tackling the myriad problems that have plagued the UK since winning a landslide majority in 2024, did little to ease anger at one of Labour’s worst defeats in last week’s local elections.
Four deputy ministers said they resigned, believing Starmer, 63, is not the man to lead Labor into the next general election in 2029 and hoping to trigger a leadership race that could last weeks, if not months.
“It is clear to me that the Prime Minister has lost his authority, not only within the parliamentary Labor Party but across the country, and cannot regain that authority,” Tom Rutland, the environment minister’s deputy minister, said in his resignation letter.
Statement from the Labor leadership pic.twitter.com/7V08SBwtEz— Tom Rutland MP (@Tom4EWAS) May 11, 2026
Australian-born former minister Catherine West, who went undercover at the weekend to threaten to enter the leadership contest if Starmer did not offer radical change, told Reuters she had received 80 responses supporting her request for the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure.
He called for a leadership election in September.
Two of Starmer’s closest allies, environment minister Steve Reed and defense minister John Healey, entered the prime minister’s Downing Street office late on Monday, according to Sky News.
Officials did not respond to a request for comment on whether this was a planned meeting.
Previously, Starmer had sought to change the narrative about his leadership, arguing that he would now offer a “complete break” with the decision-making processes that ensured the “status quo” of the past.
In any leadership bid, he said, continuity is now more important in an environment of global conflicts in Ukraine and Iran.
Starmer has vowed to govern with the “hope” and “urgency” needed to improve living standards and create a “stronger, fairer” country to crush the challenge posed by the populist UK Reform Party on the right and the Greens on the left before the next general election.
“Our response this time must be different, there must be a complete disengagement. We must make this country stronger and take control of our economic security,” Starmer said earlier on Monday. he said.
“I know people are disappointed with the state of Britain. Disappointed with politics and some people are disappointed with me,” he said.
“I know I have doubts and I know I have to prove them wrong. And I will do that,” Starmer told an audience of party loyalists who gave him several standing ovations.
The applause was a far cry from Labor MPs’ messaging groups, where talk of Starmer’s sacking has gathered momentum after the party lost hundreds of seats in councils in England and parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales.
Although there are few Labor MPs ready to openly support Starmer, the prime minister’s closest allies have again warned against sacking a leader so early in his term, saying it would only do further damage to the UK.
Referring to the opposition Conservative party on social media, Reed said, “Changing leaders only leads to chaos. We have seen what happened under the Conservative Party. Let’s learn from their mistakes, instead of repeating them.”
Former deputy chancellor Angela Rayner, who was seen as a potential rival for the leadership after criticizing Starmer’s operation on Sunday, told a union conference that the government “will be judged by actions, not just our words”.
