- Starmer could announce departure time as early as Monday
- Ministers and lawmakers are calling on him to step down.
- Andy Burnham, newly re-elected to Parliament, is the main challenger.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was reflecting on his political future on Sunday, after his rival Andy Burnham’s decisive election victory in Parliament prompted more ministers from the ruling Labor Party to call for his departure.
Saddled with one of the lowest approval ratings of any British leader in modern political history, Starmer could decide as early as Monday whether to step down or lead a leadership contest against Burnham, a source said.
The scale of Burnham’s victory for a parliamentary seat in northwest England on Friday increased pressure on Starmer, with dozens of lawmakers and some ministers privately calling on him to set a timetable for his departure to clear the way for the former Greater Manchester mayor.
A source familiar with the matter said Starmer was spending the weekend thinking and discussing his position with his family, but that an expected conversation with Burnham would clarify things.
“Keir likes to think,” the source said.
Heightening the pressure on Starmer, US President Donald Trump predicted on his Truth Social platform that “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”
Trump then reiterated his view that Starmer had “severely failed” in cutting immigration and increasing North Sea oil production.
Starmer’s unpopularity was highlighted by Labour’s heavy defeats in May’s local elections, and polls of party members indicate Burnham would win a formal leadership contest.
If Burnham takes the helm, he would become Britain’s seventh prime minister in the last ten years.
Starmer’s position under threat
News from the sky reported understanding that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had called on Starmer to step down during a private meeting over the weekend. Its spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His apparent call, alongside other ministers and dozens of lawmakers, reinforced the sense that it is now a question of when, rather than if, Starmer would step down.
Starmer said only days ago that he would stand in any official Labor leadership race to replace him.
While Starmer’s team believes his landslide victory in the 2024 national election gives him the mandate to stay in office until 2029, Business Minister Peter Kyle said the Prime Minister was considering the “political challenges he faces at the moment”.
Kyle said he spoke to Starmer on Friday and found a man who wondered what “the country expected of him”. The conversation showed Starmer was in “very difficult circumstances”, the business minister said.
“So I’m not going to deny the political challenges that he’s facing right now, but what I’m also not going to do is say that there’s ever going to be something inevitable in the days ahead,” Kyle said. LBC radio.
Starmer’s situation is precarious.
Burnham’s landslide victory over the populist Reform UK party to secure a parliamentary seat in Makerfield has prompted more lawmakers and ministers to pressure the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure to avoid what could be a divisive leadership contest.
The team supporting Burnham, a 56-year-old career politician, had said they were giving Starmer the weekend to consider his position in the hope he would establish an orderly transfer of power.
For the moment, there is no indication that the two men have spoken.
Former minister Jess Phillips – who supports Health Secretary Wes Streeting, another potential challenger to Starmer – told the BBC that “it feels like we have reached the end of the road” and that it would be best if Starmer’s departure was “as dignified as possible”.
