Time to go, Cabinet ministers tell Starmer

At least three Cabinet ministers, including Shabana Mahmood, have called on Sir Keir Starmer to consider his position.

The Prime Minister is facing demands to quit after his last-ditch attempt to rescue his premiership backfired on Monday.

In the hours that followed his “reset” speech, 79 Labour MPs publicly demanded his resignation, including six ministerial aides who quit the Government to back the mutiny.

Then, in what is likely to be a fatal blow to Sir Keir’s premiership, it emerged on Monday evening that Ms Mahmood, the Home Secretary, was among Cabinet ministers to have joined the calls, reportedly telling the Prime Minister privately that he should consider leaving office.

Her intervention comes after her own faction, Blue Labour, which represents the party’s Right wing, said Sir Keir should set out a “timetable for his departure”, arguing that “nothing has convinced us that he is able to rise to the challenge confronting this country”.

Ministers will meet on Tuesday for the first time since last week’s disastrous local election results, and are expected to tell the Prime Minister his position has become untenable, according to The Times.

One MP involved in the rebellion said: “This is happening because the Cabinet hasn’t stepped up. This could have been a lot more orderly. They should do it tomorrow at the Cabinet meeting.”

Sir Keir’s reset speech on Monday failed to quell the anger in his party, despite his pledges to nationalise British Steel and push for a closer relationship with the EU.

He said that he knew MPs were “frustrated” with his leadership but that he had “learnt a lot in the first two years of the job” and recognised that “incremental change won’t cut it”.

However, a serving minister told The Telegraph the speech was “too little too late” and that Sir Keir’s position is “not tenable”, while a senior Labour source complained he had wheeled out the “same old set of clichés”.

A senior Labour source said the speech had been “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, adding: “It was just hopeless, in the truest sense of the word. There is no hope.”

Six parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs), including aides to Mr Streeting, Ms Mahmood and Darren Jones, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, resigned their jobs to call for Sir Keir’s resignation.

Six new aides were then appointed on Monday evening, including: David Burton-Sampson – Department for Health and Social Care; Linsey Farnsworth MP – Ministry of Justice; Jayne Kirkham MP – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Michael Payne MP – Home Office; Tim Roca MP – Department for Work and Pensions and Sean Woodcock MP – Cabinet Office.

The rebellion by PPSs, a group of unpaid ministerial aides, recalled the fall of Boris Johnson in July 2022, when he faced a coordinated attempt to force him from office.

Mr Morris is PPS to Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, and Ms Jameson is PPS to Ms Mahmood. Jas Athwal, another MP calling for Sir Keir to resign, is an ally of Mr Streeting and represents the neighbouring constituency.

Ms Mahmood’s involvement in the apparent plot was first reported by The Times on Monday night.

The Telegraph revealed on Sunday that Mr Streeting is ready to launch a leadership campaign should a contest break out.

A spokesman for Mr Streeting on Monday denied accusations that he was orchestrating a coup by encouraging his allies to resign.

Some Cabinet ministers including Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, are thought to still be loyal to Sir Keir and have told him to fight on.

Some of the MPs who have demanded Sir Keir’s resignation are calling for a “timetable” for him to be replaced that would allow Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to return to Westminster.

Mr Burnham has told his backers that he has convinced a nearby MP to stand down, allowing him to contest a by-election and become eligible for the party leadership.

He is also planning to shore up his reputation with the bond markets in the coming weeks with the release of a pamphlet on the economy by his allies in the pressure group Mainstream.

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, said on Monday that Mr Burnham should be allowed to run in a by-election, and should not be blocked by Sir Keir’s allies on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), as he was in January.

She told Sky News that Mr Burnham was an asset in Manchester and would be an “asset in Westminster too”.

Angela Rayner, who appears to be supporting Mr Burnham for the party leadership, told the Communication Workers Union conference that he should be allowed into the Commons.

“We can only prove we mean our Labour values by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism,” she said, adding: “We can start by accepting that Andy Burnham should never have been blocked. It was a mistake that the leadership of our party should put right.”

Sir Keir said during his appearance at a community centre in Waterloo, central London, on Monday that the issue of Mr Burnham’s candidacy would be “for the NEC” to decide, although in practice the committee will vote in line with his decision.

A source on the NEC said the committee was undecided about how to treat Mr Burnham and that it was not certain that members would block him for a second time.

Sir Keir’s speech followed days of speculation about his leadership, prompted by the party’s worst performance in local elections in a century.

Downing Street is now scrambling to find a way to placate angry backbenchers before the King’s Speech on Wednesday, when the Government will lay out its legislative plans for the next session of Parliament.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]