Here's the latest
• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is fighting to save his premiership after more than 80 lawmakers from his governing center-left Labour Party publicly called for him to resign or set a timetable for his departure.
• A defiant Starmer has defied calls to quit, telling his cabinet that he will “get on with governing.” He noted a formal challenge had not yet been mounted against his leadership, laying down the gauntlet to his potential rivals. Three ministers have resigned from government.
• The Labour Party mutiny was spurred by disastrous results in last week’s local elections, which saw it lose more than 1,400 seats in English councils and suffer heavy losses in elections for the Welsh and Scottish parliaments. The hard-right Reform UK party was the main beneficiary of Labour’s slump.
• The crisis looks set to tip Britain back into the political chaos which has defined its last decade. If Starmer chooses to step aside, or is ousted, his successor would become Britain’s sixth prime minister in seven years.
No mention of crisis facing PM in cabinet meeting readout
The UK Cabinet Office has released a short readout of today’s meeting of Britain’s most senior ministers that contains no mention of the crisis surrounding Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
As the clamor for his resignation grew, Starmer used this morning’s gathering in 10 Downing Street to tell top ministers he would get on with governing and had no intention of quitting.
But anyone hoping for insights on exactly what was said in the readout will be disappointed. Instead of covering the infighting, it focused on contingency planning around the Middle East conflict.
Londoners react as Starmer resists calls to quit amid UK political turmoil
People in London, England have been reacting to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to “get on with governing,” in the face of pressure from some in his own government to quit after a disastrous set of local election results.
“He inherited quite a difficult government at quite a difficult time, I’d say,” student Riyadh Rehman told the Reuters news agency. “I might also say maybe, as a Labour government, they don’t really embody those maybe left-wing values or socialist values that you would expect.”
Immigration officer Geoffery Worsdell said Starmer had tried to “keep everyone happy” since being elected.
“Even though personally I’m not a fan of his, but I think he’s been holding back the more sort of left radical side of his party for a while, trying to keep them at bay for various reasons,” he added.
You can see more reaction in the video above.
Starmer has also been repeatedly criticized by US President Donald Trump recently
Even before last week’s local elections, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was repeatedly criticized by his US counterpart President Donald Trump.
Since practically the beginning of the US and Israel’s war with Iran, Trump expressed his discontent with Starmer for not allowing the US to use British bases to launch attacks on the country.
The US leader blasted the UK as “very, very uncooperative,” and said that “this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with” in reference to Starmer.
For his part, Starmer has defended his decision not to join the war, saying he was not prepared to join a conflict “without a plan to get us out.”
In mid-March, Starmer said he had “stood by my principles” and believed that “time will show that we have the right approach.”
Starmer was likely referring to Nigel Farage, the leader of the hard-right Reform UK party and an ally of Trump.
At first, Farage said the UK’s “gloves needed to come off” when dealing with Iran. As the war in the Middle East escalated, Farage backtracked, saying the UK should not get involved “in another foreign war.”
In April, Starmer said that his “position on the Iran war has been clear from the start. We’re not going to get dragged into this war.”
CNN’s Christian Edwards contributed to this reporting.
Keir Starmer inherited a broken economy. He has yet to fix it
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer swept to power almost two years ago on a ticket to revive Britain’s ailing economy and restore the fortunes of households whose living standards have deteriorated.
“Change begins now,” he declared following the Labour Party’s resounding victory at the general election in July 2024. But meaningful change has yet to be delivered — and the Labour Party is paying dearly for the delay, as highlighted by heavy losses in recent local elections.
On one measure that matters a great deal to voters, salaries have not kept pace with rises in consumer prices. Since the Labour Party came to office, average weekly pay, after adjusting for inflation, has inched up around 1% to £492 ($666), official figures show. UK inflation, meanwhile, has been stuck at or above 3% for the past year.
“The extent of Britain’s living standards slowdown is unprecedented in modern times,” the Resolution Foundation, a think tank, found in a report last year.
Labour’s pledge to build more houses to address a chronic shortage have not materialized and economic growth, although somewhat improved, has remained lacklustre at a little above 1%. Soaring energy costs because of the Iran war are expected to weigh on output: the International Monetary Fund expects the UK economy to expand by just 0.8% this year.
“The UK economy has been stuck in a cycle of sluggish growth for several years,” according to Caterina Batog, an analyst at the British Chambers of Commerce. “Productivity continues to lag behind other advanced economies, business investment remains weak, and political uncertainty has weighed heavily on business confidence.”
A look at last week's UK local elections, and the hard-right party which made gains
Of the Labour lawmakers calling for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to step down, many are citing the party’s deep losses in the UK’s municipal, or local, elections last week.
Labour, which won a significant victory in the 2024 general election, lost nearly 1,500 seats in English councils, while the hard-right Reform UK party won a total of 1,454 seats in England.
Voters taking part in local elections choose local councillors, rather than representatives in the UK Parliament.
The Reform party, led by the populist Nigel Farage, aims to “restore Britain’s power, reward hard work, defend our culture, and put the British people first,” its website says.
The first four policies listed on Reform’s website relate to immigration.
“Illegal immigration is out of control,” the party says, vowing to “remove all illegal migrants from the UK” and “ensure that anyone who enters the country illegally will be ineligible for asylum.”
Reform also promises to “defend and protect British culture and traditions,” “dramatically cut foreign aid” and scrap environmental policies in support of British farmers, among other policies, should it get into power.
Following his party’s gains in the election last week, Farage said that Reform was no longer a “fluke or a protest vote,” but a “truly national party” that was “here to stay.”
Three ministers have quit Starmer's cabinet today. Here's what that actually is
Three ministers have resigned from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet so far today, amid growing backlash against the country’s leader following huge losses for Labour in last week’s local elections.
Home Office Minister Jess Phillips, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Minister for Devolution, Faith and Communities and Alex Davies-Jones, the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, have all handed in their resignations in the past few hours.
According to the British Parliament website, the cabinet is the “team of 20 or so most senior ministers in the Government who are chosen by the Prime Minister to lead on specific policy areas,” including health, transport, foreign affairs and defense.
Among the most notable members of the cabinet are Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, finance minister Rachel Reeves and foreign minister Yvette Cooper.
Several cabinet members, including the country’s defense minister John Healey, stood by Starmer while speaking to the press and posting on social media earlier today.
Third minister quits Starmer's government
A third minister, Alex Davies-Jones, has just resigned from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.
Davies-Jones, the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, wrote in a resignation letter shared on social media that she implores Starmer “to act in the country’s interest and set out a timetable for your departure.”
It follows the resignations of Home Office Minister Jess Phillips and Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Minister for Devolution, Faith and Communities.
Minister resigns from Starmer's cabinet
A second British minister has just resigned from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet.
Jess Phillips, who served as Home Office Minister, posted her resignation letter to Facebook a short while ago.
Phillips, a staunch voice in a strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, expressed her gratitude to Starmer for his work on the issue, but also claimed that “real change and direction in this area usually came from threats made by me in light of catastrophic mistakes.”
The politician referenced action against online child sex abuse that she was pushing to become UK legislation, and claimed that Starmer did not work to enact this quickly enough. She did not explicitly mention the Labour Party’s losses at last week’s local elections in her letter.
Earlier today, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Minister for Devolution, Faith and Communities, became the first of Starmer’s ministers to resign, saying that the prime minister’s government has not “acted with the vision, pace and ambition that our mandate for change demands of us.”
Almost 80 lawmakers from Starmer’s governing center-left Labour Party have also publicly called for him to resign or set a timetable for his departure.
A closer look at the phenomenon of protest voting in Britain's local elections
It’s not unusual in British politics for leaders to suffer disastrous local election results after two years in office, before then winning a second term at the next general election.
The Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher lost more than 1,000 council seats across England in 1981 local elections, but was reelected in a landslide in the 1983 general election. Blair lost more than 1,000 council seats in 1999, before winning his second landslide in the general election two years later.
That’s in part because of the “protest vote” phenomenon of a multi-party system. Voters use the local elections to express frustrations with the national government or the current state of the party they typically support.
Last week’s UK local elections saw huge gains made by smaller parties — the hard-right Reform UK, the centrist Liberal Democrats and the left-wing Greens — which many political commentators note is a clear sign of frustration with the two more mainstream parties, Labour and Conservative.
British media is awash with accounts of voters citing anger over immigration as part of what spurred them to vote for Reform UK local councillors in protest, even though immigration policy is largely controlled by the Home Office and Border Force at the national level.
Other voters said they voted Green to express discontent with Starmer’s government for a range of reasons, including national issues like social benefits and immigration changes, as well as foreign policy issues in relation to Gaza.
Whether those voters coalesce around the two mainstream parties again in the next general election is an open question.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said, in the wake of the local election results, that Britain’s two-party politics is dead. But some believe the walloping incumbents receive in local elections is just par for the course.
Political chaos could make for an awkward King's Speech tomorrow
The Labour Party’s mutiny comes at an unfortunate time.
Tomorrow, hundreds of lawmakers will have to put their differences to one side as they gather in Westminster for the King’s Speech – a key event in the UK political calendar which marks the opening of a new session of parliament.
Sat on a throne in the House of Lords, King Charles III will read a speech that sets out the legislation that the government intends to introduce in the forthcoming parliament.
That speech will have been written entirely by the government, and approved by the cabinet – some members of which are now reportedly in open revolt against the Prime Minister.
Whether the imminence of the King’s Speech gives Keir Starmer staying power remains to be seen. None of his potential rivals have yet formally challenged his leadership.
Perhaps the prospect of having to play happy families in front of the monarch Wednesday morning will persuade those rivals to bide their time for another day.
Labour party appears deeply divided on who they want to replace Starmer
There are mounting calls for Keir Starmer to step aside. But there appears to be no consensus among Labour Party lawmakers on who should replace him.
At least 81 of the current 403 Labour Members of Parliament would need to unite behind one person, which doesn’t look likely to happen any time soon. Here are the key names being thrown around:
- Wes Streeting: The current Health Secretary hails from the right flank of the Labour Party and is seen as a key rival to Starmer. Streeting is said to have long harbored hopes of running for prime minister. He was notably silent and didn’t speak to the media as he left Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
- Angela Rayner: She was formerly Starmer’s right-hand woman, serving as deputy prime minister before resigning last year over her failure to pay the correct amount of property taxes. Rayner is considered a serious contender, but she has not formally announced that she will mount a leadership challenge. In a statement on Sunday, she called on Starmer to “meet the moment,” adding that “what we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change.” British media has widely reported that she is still awaiting the results of an investigation by Britain’s tax authority, which could complicate her chances.
- Andy Burnham: The hugely popular mayor of Greater Manchester is not actually eligible to become prime minister right now because he doesn’t have a seat in parliament. Labour leaders blocked Burnham from standing in a by-election earlier this year, halting his chances of mounting a leadership challenge to Starmer. But MPs who still want Burnham to become their leader are hoping that he could run for a seat in parliament if they set out a lengthy timetable for Starmer’s resignation and replacement.
More British lawmakers pledge support for Starmer
More lawmakers from Britain’s governing Labour Party have taken to social media today to show support for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Many of them suggested that, if Starmer were to step down, it would cause further instability for the UK.
John Healey, the country’s Secretary of State for Defence, posted to X that “people are worried about current conflicts and looming global crises.”
Catherine Atkinson, who represents Derby North in the East Midlands, echoed this sentiment, writing on X: “We face a less safe world with global instability adding to cost of living pressures for households.
Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said she was “backing” Starmer “because voters did not elect us to turn inward and obsess over ourselves (but) they elected us to deliver change for working people.”
Bayo Alaba, who represents the constituency of Southend East and Rochford, wrote that last week’s election results were “beyond sad,” adding that “the task of fixing our country and communities is not easy or quick.”
Tulip Siddiq, who represents Hampstead and Highgate in London, wrote on X that “the last few days have been bruising,” but said that Starmer “is right to get on with the job. That is what the country expects of all of us.”
Who is Keir Starmer, the British prime minister defiant in the face of calls to step down
In Britain’s last general election just under two years ago, Keir Starmer led the country’s center-left Labour Party to victory for the first time in 14 years.
After his win, Starmer pledged a return to the politics of public service, vowing to heal the “weariness at the heart of the nation” with “action not words.”
The prime minister recently made another vow, pledging to “get on with governing,” despite some calls for him to step down following huge losses for Labour in last week’s local elections.
Starmer, 63, was elected as the leader of the Labour party in 2020, after Jeremy Corbyn, an avowed socialist, stepped down after a bitter defeat in the country’s 2019 general elections.
Starmer, more of a centrist than his predecessor, rose to prominence as a young activist lawyer before his career in politics.
Born in 1962, he grew up in a small town to the south of London. His father was a toolmaker who worked in a factory, while his mother was a nurse who suffered with severe physical disabilities, which ultimately led to one of her legs being amputated.
Starmer became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2008, running the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales – a high-profile job for which he was knighted, making him the first ever Labour leader to enter the job with the prefix Sir to their name.
Why are Labour lawmakers losing faith in Starmer?
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s authority has been deteriorating for months. While last week’s dismal local election results may have been the final straw for many lawmakers in his Labour Party, a series of policy missteps, U-turns and scandal had brought Starmer’s government to breaking point.
Early in Starmer’s premiership, his government – seeking to put Britain’s public finances on a more stable footing – announced that it would cut a universal subsidy to help older people pay their heating bills in winter, and introduce a means-tested system instead.
That move caused a huge backlash, as more than 10 million pensioners lost out on payments, worth up to £300 (about $400), in the winter of 2024. Starmer backtracked the next year, reinstating the subsidy.
The winter fuel payments debacle damaged trust in the leadership’s judgment – and would have failed to save much money anyway. The government’s credibility took a further hit when it attempted to cut certain disability and sickness-related benefits payments – which have ballooned since the Covid-19 pandemic – only for the measures to be blocked by backbench Labour lawmakers in Parliament.
To Labour’s left-wing voters, the party seemed callous. To financial markets, it seemed unwilling to take tough decisions. Borrowing costs continued to creep up.
Starmer has also seesawed in his rhetoric and policies on immigration. In the first year of his premiership, he took a tougher line on the issue, partly in an attempt to stop voters jumping to Reform, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage. But that tactic only served to alienate Labour’s more progressive voters, without halting Reform’s surge in the polls.
The past several months have been dominated by the fallout from Starmer’s decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington. Starmer fired Mandelson after just a few months in the role after documents revealed the extent of Mandelson’s ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The appointment deepened doubts about Starmer’s political judgment.
Against the backdrop of anemic economic growth, these missteps have brought Starmer’s premiership to the brink. Although supporters of the Prime Minister point out his achievements in bringing down waiting lists for the National Health Service, workers’ rights reforms and rebuilding Britain’s relations with Europe, his poor communication skills mean Labour’s successes can go unnoticed.
"We must unite behind the Prime Minister:" Some cabinet members support Starmer
Several members of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet have stood by him this morning, amid calls from some in his party for him to step down following huge losses for Labour in last week’s local elections.
Britain’s Housing Secretary Steve Reed called for his party to “unite behind” Starmer, writing on X: “This is not a game. This instability has consequences for people’s lives.”
After leaving a cabinet meeting held at Downing Street this morning, Reed told Sky News that Starmer “has my full support.”
Secretary of State for Business and Trade Peter Kyle said after the meeting: “We’re working hard on the big issues that are facing the country and Keir is showing really steadfast leadership.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told Sky News that Starmer is “going to continue with his job, as he should, as the public will expect him to do, and I’m going to continue with mine.”
McFadden said that nobody had challenged Starmer in the cabinet meeting this morning, adding that “there were many statements of support for the job that he is doing.”
CNN’s James Frater contributed to this reporting.
Wes Streeting, seen as a key rival to Starmer, leaves Downing Street after cabinet meeting
We’re stood on Downing Street in London, where Labour lawmakers have been filing out of Number 10 following this morning’s cabinet meeting.
Several cabinet members have paused to speak to reporters and express their support for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
But one of the ministers who made a beeline for the exit, without speaking to reporters, was Wes Streeting.
Streeting, the Health Secretary, is seen as a key rival to Starmer. Streeting hails from the right of the Labour Party and is said to have long harbored hopes of running for the top job.
In this morning’s meeting, Starmer defied calls to resign, meaning any rivals will have to launch a formal challenge to his leadership. It remains to be seen if Streeting has the necessary 81 signatures from lawmakers to do so.
Starmer tells cabinet he will "get on with governing," defying calls to resign
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has told his cabinet that he will get on with governing, pointing out that a formal challenge has not been mounted against his leadership.
Starmer told his cabinet that he takes responsibility for last week’s poor local election results, but that he also takes responsibility “for delivering the change we promised” in 2024, when Labour was elected in a landslide.
Starmer’s defiant comments have laid down the gauntlet to his potential challengers. To oust Starmer as leader of the Labour Party – and therefore as Prime Minister – any rival will need to gather the support of 81 Labour lawmakers.
In a speech Monday, Starmer vowed not to take Britain back to the chaotic churn at the top of government that occurred in the final years of the last Conservative government.
He stressed to his cabinet: “The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families.”
UK bond yields soar, pound sinks as investors rattled by leadership crisis
UK borrowing costs have hit their highest level in almost three decades, as investors worry that Prime Minister Keir Starmer, should he bow to pressure to resign, would be replaced by a more left-leaning candidate who could weaken public finances.
The yield on 30-year gilts hit 5.8% in morning trade, the highest since 1998, according to Reuters. Benchmark 10-year gilt yields rose to 5.11%, near the highest since 2008. Meanwhile, the pound dropped around 0.7% against the dollar to $1.36 and was modestly lower against the euro at €1.15.
Bond yields rise when prices fall, indicating lower demand for bonds and that investors are demanding a higher return to hold the assets because they anticipate increased credit risks or higher interest rates.
“A leftwards lurch would raise hackles among bond vigilantes at a time when the fiscal position is already fragile, and risks are rising due to rising inflation from soaring energy prices and a weaker growth outlook for the economy,” said Neil Wilson, a strategist at Saxo bank.
Higher government spending, lower economic growth and embedded inflation “would be a toxic combination for gilts,” he added.
Ministers arrive at Downing Street for a crunch cabinet meeting
Ostensibly, this morning’s cabinet meeting in Downing Street is to discuss the government’s response to the situation in the Middle East.
That issue has likely fallen down the agenda, after more than 70 Labour lawmakers – including a member of Starmer’s government – publicly called for him to step aside.
This morning’s meeting will instead be dominated by the question of whether Starmer – given the rebellion within his party, and voters’ rejection of his Labour Party in local elections last week – can remain in post.
We’ve seen a string of cabinet members arrive at 10 Downing Street for a crunch meeting. The meeting is thought to be underway.
Change in UK leadership could lead to higher borrowing costs, economists warn
Economists at Capital Economics, a British think tank, have warned a change in the top job in the UK government could lead to higher borrowing costs.
Ruth Gregory and Joe Maher said they’d expect Keir Starmer’s potential successors to be “not as fiscally disciplined” and increase public spending.
Starmer and his finance chief Rachel Reeves have imposed strict spending rules on the government, aiming to reduce the country’s debt burden and boost economic growth. But that has led to some painful decisions – and it has not yet delivered the desired goals.
Gregory and Maher said a new leader might ditch the strict rules in favor of more spending. But, their expectations for that to work are low.
“We doubt a new Prime Minister would be any more successful at boosting the economy’s medium-term growth rate,” they said.
The economists pointed out the markets appear to agree – yields on the 10-year UK government bonds, known as gilts, were already rising – this means that fewer investors are interested in buying them and UK’s borrowing costs are set to go higher. Similarly, the British pound is trading lower against the euro.
However, Gregory and Maher also said that while domestic politics is playing a role in the markets, the war in Iran is likely to have more impact on the economy.
