Four ministers resigned from Keir Starmer's government on Tuesday, joining over 80 Labour MPs calling for the prime minister to quit. Jess Phillips, a Home Office minister and close ally of health secretary Wes Streeting, was among those who stepped down, citing frustration with stalled progress and a lack of bold action.
In her resignation letter, Phillips said she had seen first-hand how the prime minister's reluctance to engage in arguments meant opportunities for progress were delayed. She highlighted a year-long delay in legislating to prevent children from taking naked images of themselves, calling it "the definition of incremental change."
Zubir Ahmed, a health minister, and Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for victims and tackling violence against women and girls, also resigned. Davies-Jones described the recent electoral defeats as "catastrophic" and urged Starmer to set a timetable for his departure. Ahmed cited a "lack of values-driven leadership" and said the public had "irretrievably lost confidence" in the prime minister.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the communities minister and a close ally of energy secretary Ed Miliband, was the first to resign, calling for an "orderly transition." She said local election results showed the prime minister had lost public trust.
Despite the resignations, Starmer told his cabinet he would fight on, arguing the threshold for a leadership challenge had not been met. Several ministers, including Pat McFadden and Liz Kendall, publicly backed him. However, senior cabinet members—Shabana Mahmood, Yvette Cooper, John Healey, and David Lammy—reportedly urged Starmer to oversee an orderly transition, while others like Richard Hermer and Steve Reed encouraged him to stay.
