Sir Keir Starmer could resign as Prime Minister by the end of this week without the need for a formal leadership contest, a Cabinet minister has said, as Labour’s post-election crisis deepens and rivals jostle to replace him.
The prediction landed as Wes Streeting made his move, with allies briefing that he stood ready to enter the contest if circumstances demanded — stopping just short of an open challenge to the sitting Prime Minister.
Labour lost nearly 1,500 councillors in last Thursday’s local elections, surrendered the Welsh Senedd and watched Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK seize more than 1,450 seats.
When will Keir Starmer’s fate be decided?
Cabinet members are understood to believe the decisive push will come within 48 hours of Starmer’s planned “reset speech” on Monday. “We need to give him the opportunity to speak tomorrow,” one minister said, “but then, after that, people will move. I expect there will be well above the number needed to trigger a contest by this time on Tuesday.”
A separate minister was more direct: “I think he’ll go by the end of this week, without the need for a contest.”
The mechanism being discussed involves MPs presenting a list of names to Downing Street, confronting Starmer with an ultimatum to leave on his own terms or face removal. Streeting’s allies are also said to be considering throwing their weight behind an insurgent challenge from Catherine West — a little-known former Foreign Office minister who publicly threatened to mount a direct challenge to Starmer unless cabinet colleagues had acted by Monday.
West’s intervention, which stunned the party on Saturday, was initially dismissed as unconnected to the major contenders. But her uncompromising demand has since gathered parliamentary support, and whether she can reach the 81 nominations needed to force a formal contest is now an open question. Writing in the Daily Mail, columnist Dan Hodges described Streeting’s move as an act of “courage” in a government where that quality has been in short supply.
What happens to Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner?
Streeting’s move has thrown the ambitions of his rivals into disarray. Burnham had been poised to reveal he had secured a route back to Westminster via a by-election — a plan now derailed by Streeting’s intervention, leaving the Greater Manchester Mayor, as the Daily Mail put it, “marooned in his North West citadel as events unfold 200 miles to the south.”
Rayner’s contribution was a lengthy broadside accusing Starmer of “cronyism” and attacking his veto of Burnham’s Gorton candidacy — but she conspicuously avoided the two things everyone was waiting for: a resignation demand and a declaration of her own ambitions.
Some Rayner allies claimed she was waiting to see whether Streeting formally launched his bid before entering the race. But another close friend told the Daily Mail she was “losing the stomach for the fight,” citing her unresolved stamp duty issue and concerns about her inner circle. “There’s a feeling her moment has passed,” the friend said.
Could Ed Miliband enter the Labour leadership race?
One unexpected name has emerged as a potential high-profile challenger. A minister told Dan Hodges that Environment Secretary Ed Miliband had been privately testing support among colleagues for his own bid to reclaim the Labour leadership he held from 2010 to 2015. “Ed’s been canvassing a lot of people,” the minister said. “He’s told friends his preference would be for Andy to stand. But if he can’t, then he’s prepared to step up himself.”
The Express understands the suggestion has caught many in Westminster off guard, given Miliband’s previous insistence that he had no interest in returning to frontline politics at the highest level.
It is just 72 hours since Starmer responded to the election results with what the Daily Mail branded a “tone deaf – some might say brain dead” declaration that he was staying put. That show of defiance has only accelerated his unravelling.