Starmer in a speech yesterday
(PHOTO : JAMES MANNING/PA WIRE

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being pushed to the limit by his own party as he faces a revolt by Labour MPs that is only growing by the hour and multiple members of his cabinet have privately urged him to resign or set a timetable for his resignation.

PM's Party Turns on Him

In 24 hours, his party has turned on Starmer, with the better part of 100 MPs asking him to resign or set a timetable for his resignation.

In a Labour MPs' WhatsApp group, Natasha Irons, MP for Croydon East, wrote: 'Bottom line, changing leader because Nigel Farage has forced us to is not something any of us can come back from. Anyone who thinks we can needs to wake up.'

A different MP said: 'I think we have to face up to the fact that every one of them is f******* useless. Andy's strategy has been a disaster. Angela has bottled it. Ed is clearly hiding to nothing. Wes is AWOL. God knows what Catherine West is doing. I am not quite sure how we ended up here.'

A once-close Starmer ally, Chris Curtis, co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, also turned on the PM: 'I therefore think it's time for us to look for new leadership,' he said.

'And I think what that means is the prime minister rightly now setting out a timetable and an orderly process for a leadership election, one in which Labour has a discussion about the vision for the country and what changes we think are needed in order to face the very real challenges that Britain currently faces,' Curtis continued.

The number of MPs asking him to resign or set a timetable for his resignation hit 81 on Tuesday morning, enough to trigger a leadership challenge if they all back a single person, although that is highly unlikely.

Some people is the party do still have Starmer's back.

One cabinet ally of Starmer advised MPs to stop. 'Everybody needs to calm down and take a deep breath. If you want to be seen as a credible governing party, the idea that you come into power promising stability, and then 20 months later decapitate your leader, is just madness,' they said according to The Guardian.

If Starmer Does Resign Who Could Replace Him?

The list of people who could replace Starmer is getting more concrete with stock growing in two names.

First, is Wes Streeting the Health Secretary who according to The Telegraph is ready to be PM, however he, at least for the moment refuses to trigger a leadership contest himself.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is the other name as he is widely expected to have a current MP resign so that he can take their seat in Parliament and then challenge Starmer in the second half of the year.

Starmer Digs In

At a cabinet meeting Tuesday morning a defiant Starmer told his cabinet that he is not resigning.

'As I said yesterday, I take responsibility for these election results and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised,' he said. The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families.'

'The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered. The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a Cabinet,' he continued.

This echoes what he said yesterday: 'I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again, chaos that did lasting damage to this country. A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again,' Starmer said.

'I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics, and some people are frustrated with me. I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.'

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