Updated ,first published
London: Britain has plunged into a leadership crisis after Labour MPs went public with calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to quit after devastating losses in elections last Thursday, with four ministers quitting their posts and calling on him to go.
Starmer raised the stakes at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning in London (7pm Tuesday AEST), where he told colleagues he would not resign despite the calls from more than 70 MPs for a transition to a new leader.
His move put the onus on his critics, including Australian-born MP Catherine West, to launch a formal leadership contest and prove they not only had MPs on their side but could also secure a majority of party members.
Four Labour MPs resigned from junior ministry positions during the course of Tuesday in London in the hours after the cabinet meeting. They were Miatta Fahnbulleh, Zubir Ahmed, Alex Davies-Jones and Jess Phillips. None were cabinet ministers.
They were countered by a bloc of 110 Labour MPs who signed a letter defending Starmer but acknowledging the devastating loss to the party in the elections last week.
“It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate,” they said in their letter.
“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs. We must focus on that.
“This is no time for a leadership contest.”
Starmer argued in cabinet that he took responsibility for the election result but that the party had a process for a leadership election.
“The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government, and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,” he said.
“The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.
“The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet.”
While the media has reported that cabinet ministers advised Starmer to set out a transition to his resignation, ministers have not gone public with this message.
The media named Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper as three who put this to the prime minister. The BBC also named Defence Secretary John Healey.
Lammy later told the BBC the prime minister had his full support.
“No one has come forward to put themselves forward in the processes that exist in the party,” he said.
Fahnbulleh announced her resignation on Tuesday morning in London and called on Starmer to quit and set out a timeframe for a decision on a new leader in the months ahead.
“Our country faces enormous challenges and people are crying out for the scale of change that this requires,” said Fahnbulleh, whose portfolio included communities and faith.
“The public does not believe that you can lead this change – and nor do I.”
Several ministers emerged from the cabinet meeting to declare their public support for Starmer and warn that the instability was rattling the financial markets and therefore increasing the interest bill on the nation’s debt.
“This is not a game. This instability has consequences for people’s lives,” said Housing Secretary Steve Reed on X after the cabinet meeting.
“The people who will be hurt most will be those that elected us less than two years ago. We must unite behind the Prime Minister.”
Business Secretary Peter Kyle praised Starmer’s “steadfast leadership” and backed him to stay in office. The Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, said the prime minister had her full support. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, also backed Starmer when he spoke to reporters in Downing Street after the meeting.
Baroness Jenny Chapman, a Labour peer and close ally of Starmer, told Sky News after the cabinet meeting that no ministers spoke up against the prime minister.
“Everybody actually acknowledged the strength of leadership that the prime minister has shown,” said Chapman, the Minister of State for International Development.
Chapman said she believed Starmer would contest any challenge against him and would win that challenge, but she acknowledged that Labour MPs were in pain over the election results last Thursday.
“I think it would be the worst thing that we could do – to embark on a kind of process that leads to instability in the leadership of this country,” she said.
“It would be bad for our economy, but bad for our politics more generally, as well, if we were to do that.”
One of the ministers named most often as a leadership contender, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, made no comment to the media when he left the cabinet meeting. He is expected to meet Starmer on Wednesday, raising speculation he may challenge.
One of those who quit the ministry, Phillips, is seen as a close ally of Streeting.
The other principal leadership contender is Andy Burnham, the left-wing mayor of Greater Manchester, but he is not in parliament and would need time to find a seat in the House of Commons before mounting a challenge. Starmer’s allies blocked him from contesting a byelection last year.
Starmer prepared for the cabinet meeting by making a speech to supporters and the media on Monday morning (Monday night AEST) to warn that a leadership change would plunge the government into chaos.
“I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics, and some people, frustrated with me,” he said. “I know I have my doubters and I know I need to prove them wrong – and I will.”
He used the address, made to a relatively small group but televised live, to announce the nationalisation of British Steel and set out his plans for stronger ties with Europe.
Within hours of the address, however, more MPs went public with calls for him to set out a pathway to his resignation, and the British press reported that at least 70 wanted him to go.
Labour has 403 members in the House of Commons and the party rules say that a spill can only be launched if 20 per cent of that group, which amounts to 81 in the current parliament, put their names to a formal document asking for the vote.
The formal call for a vote then triggers an election of the Labour Party membership. About 161,000 members voted in the ballot that chose Lucy Powell as deputy leader last October.
By noon on Tuesday in London (9pm AEST) the British press were reporting that 81 MPs were calling for a transition to a new leader, enough to force a leadership contest.
West declared on Saturday that she would stand for the leadership to trigger a vote if Starmer did not quit, but she changed tack on Monday and said she wanted a pathway to deciding a new leader by September.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.