Why Keir Starmer thinks he’s still safe as PM
Many Labour MPs want Keir Starmer to step down, but he’s refusing to budge. Have they made a huge mistake in trying to kick him out without any solution for what comes next?
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What’s the story?
Despite all expectations, Keir Starmer is going nowhere – or so he says.
Despite more than 83 MPs calling for the Prime Minister to resign, two stepping down, and following disastrous results in the local elections for Labour, he told ministers during a cabinet meeting that he would remain in post.
Filing into 10 Downing Street, MPs ignored questions yelled from the press, but filing out, many – including Steve Reed, Pat McFadden and Liz Kendall – spoke of their support for the PM.
Others have called on him to step down, or set out a timetable for this to happen.
But there's one big thing missing in the outrage on Downing Street – and that’s any suggestion of what might come next.
"There are more than 80 people in his party who are saying versions of 'we don't think you're good enough', 'we don't think you will last', 'we don't want you to fight the next election', and 'we think you should go'," says Emily Maitlis.
"What they're not all saying is, here's the alternative, here's the person that we all support, and here's the date we want you to go."
Rumours suggest Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, is the frontrunner to take his place, despite his ineligibility to stand due to him not being an MP.
Wes Streeting is believed to be making a move to launch his own leadership challenge, and there have been suggestions Angela Rayner might also give it a shot.
But no one has made the move, which may be the reason Starmer feels so secure, for now.
Why all this works in Starmer's favour
Keir Starmer promised an end to the chaos in British politics while campaigning for the 2024 general election, following a revolving door policy at the top of the previous Tory government.
Less than two years into his own run as PM, Starmer remains unwilling to let the same happen under Labour – and those calling for him to step aside are offering no solutions to the problems they are so angered by.
"That level of chaos, confusion and mixed messaging, in a way, is giving Keir Starmer the courage, or the stubbornness, to stay for now," says Emily.
But it also makes his political failures all the more transparent.
"What you suddenly understand about Starmer is that he wasn't elected for what he stood for ideologically, it's the fact that he was the sticking plaster to the party," Emily adds.
"He got the party into a position where it was elected, because anyone could paint what they thought he might represent on top of him.
"He glued it together, he held it together, and as soon as the Starmer plaster is ripped off, what you actually see is all the various directions the Labour Party could now pull in."
Is this all Wes Streeting's doing?
Wes Streeting has been deflecting leadership challenge rumours for months, and amid this new chaos, eyes are once again on the health secretary.
"The suspicion within the cabinet is that Streeting has pulled the lever," says Lewis Goodall. "He is going for it – up to a point."
Many of those who have resigned, or called on Starmer to step down, are allied with Streeting, Lewis adds, suggesting he is making his move now before Andy Burnham can steal his thunder.
"He's getting his people to resign bit by bit, to inflict maximum damage, and try to remove the Prime Minister and have a contest before Andy Burnham and get back into parliament," Lewis says.
"But Starmer is challenging Streeting to go over the top himself, something that clearly Streeting would prefer not to do.
"He'd rather inflict on Starmer death by a thousand cuts via all of these resignations."
The ‘absurd’ rotation at 10 Downing Street
Appointing a seventh Prime Minister since the Brexit vote of 2016? Not a good look.
Emily says replacing Starmer now would make the UK seem "absurd".
"It makes us into a national joke if we cannot, as a nation, hold onto a Prime Minister more than 18 months," she says.
"We have gone down a route where we don't really know how to get stable democracy back again."
"And on the eve of the King's Speech, when you've got two wars, growing inflation, and people screaming because their lives are getting worse, not better, why on earth would you want to be part of another psychodrama which you had promised to end?"