Four Labour ministers resigned on Tuesday, including Home Office minister Jess Phillips, intensifying calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to step down. More than 80 Labour MPs have now publicly demanded his resignation after disastrous local and devolved election results last week.
In her resignation letter, Phillips said she had grown tired of seeing “opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”, citing a failure to legislate on online child sexual abuse material. Communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh was the first to resign, urging Starmer to set a timetable for an orderly transition. Health minister Zubir Ahmed and victims minister Alex Davies-Jones followed, with Davies-Jones describing the election results as “catastrophic”.
Starmer told his cabinet earlier that he would fight on, saying the threshold for a leadership challenge had not been met. Several ministers rallied around him publicly, including work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden and technology secretary Liz Kendall, who said the government should “carry on”.
However, sources told The Guardian that four senior cabinet ministers – Shabana Mahmood, Yvette Cooper, John Healey and David Lammy – spoke to Starmer on Monday, with some advising an orderly transition of power. Others urged him to stay. Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones, said the prime minister was “listening to colleagues” but would make his own decisions.
