Is It Time For Sir Keir To Fear? Pressure Mounts On UK PM To Quit

Last Updated:May 12, 2026, 05:33 IST

More than 70 Labour MPs are reportedly backing calls for Keir Starmer to step down after the party’s poor performance in local and regional elections.

UK’s embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces growing calls from his own party to step down from his role. Even though the Labour Party chief pledged to prove his doubters wrong Monday, his party’s performance in the local and regional elections failed to generate positive headlines.

UK media outlets report that more than 70 of Labour’s 403 MPs have asked him to step down. Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs — 20 percent of the party in parliament — to trigger a leadership contest.

The embattled UK PM has pledged to fight any challenge and warned Labour would “never be forgiven" by voters if it imitated the “chaos" of the previous Conservative government, which went through five prime ministers since 2010, including three in just four months in 2022.

Who Have Called On Starmer To Quit

Four government aides who have resigned have called on the UK PM to step down. A separate report by news agency AFP said that foreign minister Yvette Cooper and interior minister Shabana Mahmood told Starmer he should oversee an orderly transition of power

“(It is) now clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change," Joe Morris, who was a parliamentary private secretary to Health Secretary Wes Streeting — widely rumoured to be considering a leadership challenge — wrote on X.

Another, Tom Rutland, who was an aide to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, said Starmer had “lost authority" among Labour MPs and “will not be able to regain it".

Melanie Ward, who was an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, called for new leadership.

Who Can Succeed Starmer?

Member of the British Parliament Catherine West, who earlier threatened to trigger a leadership challenge, said she was instead collecting the names of Labour MPs who want Starmer to set a timetable for the election of a new leader in September.

It has long been rumoured that Health Secretary Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner could try to oust Starmer.

But neither is universally popular within Labour.

Policy Misstep, Mandelson Scandal

Starmer, 63, came to power in July 2024 after a landslide election win that ended 14 years of Conservative party rule dominated by austerity measures, infighting over Brexit and its Covid response.

But he has swerved from one policy misstep to another, and became mired in a scandal over the appointment, and sacking, of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington, after revelations about the envoy’s ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He has not yet spurred economic growth to help British citizens suffering with the cost of living, but has been praised for resisting US President Donald Trump over Iran.

Last week, voters issued a damning indictment of his 22 months in power in local and regional elections, which saw huge gains for the hard-right Reform UK party and the left-wing populist Greens at Labour’s expense.

Labour also lost control of the devolved Welsh parliament to nationalists Plaid Cymru for the first time since it was set up in 1999, and failed to make up ground against the Scottish National Party at the Scottish Parliament.

In a crunch speech on Monday, Starmer acknowledged the public’s frustration with the state of the country, politics and his leadership.

“I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will," he said.

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