- Starmer could announce departure schedule on Monday
- Ministers and legislators ask him to step aside.
- Andy Burnham, recently returned to parliament, is the main rival.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering his political future on Sunday, after his rival Andy Burnham’s decisive election victory in parliament led more ministers from the ruling Labor Party to call for his departure.
Starmer, struggling with some of the lowest popularity ratings of any British leader in modern political history, could decide as soon as Monday whether to step aside or wage a leadership contest against Burnham, a source said.
The magnitude of Burnham’s victory for a parliamentary seat in northwest England on Friday has increased pressure on Starmer, with dozens of lawmakers and some ministers privately asking him to set a timetable for his departure to clear the way for the former mayor of Greater Manchester.
A source with knowledge of the matter said Starmer spent the weekend thinking about and discussing his position with his family, but that a long-awaited conversation with Burnham would clear things up.
“Keir likes to think about things,” the source said.
To increase 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 repeated his view that Starmer had “seriously failed” to reduce immigration and increase North Sea oil production.
Starmer’s unpopularity was exposed by Labour’s heavy losses in local elections in May, and polls among party members indicate that Burnham would win a formal leadership contest.
If Burnham takes over, she would become Britain’s seventh prime minister in the last 10 years.
Starmer’s position under threat
News from heaven reported that it understood that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had asked Starmer to resign in a private meeting over the weekend. His spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His apparent appeal, along with that of other ministers and dozens of lawmakers, increased the sense that it is now a question of when, not if, Starmer will step aside.
Starmer said just a few days ago that he would contest any formal Labor leadership contest seeking to replace him.
While Starmer’s team believes his landslide victory in the 2024 national election gives him the mandate to remain in office until 2029, Business Minister Peter Kyle said the prime minister was reflecting on “the political challenges he faces at the moment”.
Kyle said he had spoken to Starmer on Friday and had 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 he faces right now, but what I’m also not going to do is say that there will ever be something inevitable in the days to come,” Kyle said. LBC radio.
Starmer’s position is precarious.
Burnham’s resounding victory over the populist Reform UK party to win a parliamentary seat in Makerfield prompted more MPs and ministers to pressure the Prime Minister to set a timetable for her departure to avoid what could be a divisive leadership race.
The team supporting Burnham, a 56-year-old career politician, had said they would give Starmer the weekend to consider his position in the hope he would establish an orderly transfer of power.
So far, there was no indication that the two had spoken.
Former minister Jess Phillips, who supports health secretary Wes Streeting, another potential Starmer rival, told the bbc that “it seems that we have reached the end of the road” and that it would be best for Starmer’s departure to be “as dignified as possible.”
