British Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Downing Street in London on Wednesday.Jaimi Joy/Reuters
When Keir Starmer led Britain’s Labour Party to a sweeping victory in the 2024 election, he promised the country stable leadership and alluded to serving 10 years as Prime Minister. Less than two years later, Mr. Starmer is facing a caucus revolt and a potential leadership challenge that could see him forced out of office.
On Thursday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned, saying he no longer had confidence in the Prime Minister. “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift,” he wrote in his letter of resignation.
He added that, “It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election.” There needs to be a debate about “what comes next,” which must include “the best possible field of candidates.”
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Four junior cabinet ministers also resigned this week, and around 100 Labour MPs called on Mr. Starmer to step down.
It’s not clear whether Mr. Streeting will launch a leadership bid, but at least three other potential candidates – former deputy party leader Angela Rayner, former party leader Ed Miliband and Manchester Mayor Andrew Burnham – are believed to be lining up support.
Party rules allow Mr. Starmer to run as a candidate if there is a leadership contest, and he has indicated that he plans to fight off any challengers.
If he is deposed, Britain will be on its seventh prime minister in 10 years. That’s a remarkable turnover considering that in the 40 years before 2016 the country had a total of six.
Britain's health minister, Wes Streeting, resigned on Thursday and called for a leadership contest to oust Keir Starmer. Rebellion against the prime minister has been growing within his own Labour Party following huge losses in last week's local elections.
Reuters
“Britain’s becoming ungovernable,” said Jonathan Tonge, a political-science professor at the University of Liverpool. The Labour Party “is just tearing itself apart. It’s extraordinary when you win such a huge landslide. It’s political madness.”
Mr. Starmer’s problems began almost as soon as he was sworn into office. Within months, he faced a series of scandals over donations to the party and had to fire several senior advisers. He also had little room to introduce the kind of ambitious social programs Labour envisioned, owing to the sorry state of the country’s public finances and the persistently weak economic growth. Instead, he was forced to cut spending and raise taxes.
His attempts to curry favour with U.S. President Donald Trump have largely backfired. And his appointment of Labour stalwart Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. turned into a political nightmare after details emerged about Mr. Mandelson’s close ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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The final straw for many Labour MPs was last week’s disastrous local election results, which saw the party lose 1,500 council seats in England and give up power in Wales for the first time in more than 100 years.
“Starmer promised change and decisions and action, and what was delivered was indecision and inaction,” said Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester. “The backdrop of all of this is it’s a dismal economy, and people are frustrated.”
Mr. Starmer’s personal popularity with voters has never been strong, and the Labour Party’s 2024 victory had more to do with the collapse of the Conservative Party. While Labour won 411 out of 650 seats, the party’s share of the vote rose marginally, to 33.7 per cent from 32.2 per cent in the 2019 election (which the Conservatives won). Meanwhile, the Tory vote fell to 23.7 per cent from 43.6 per cent.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Palace of Westminster in London on Wednesday.Toby Melville/Reuters
“You have to remember that Starmer was never a particularly popular leader in opposition,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. He added that the Prime Minister’s early missteps “set the tone for a government that hasn’t been able to bring about the rapid improvement in the economy and public services that the public – rather unreasonably, perhaps – was hoping for.”
Opinions differ on why Britain has had so many prime ministers – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Mr. Starmer – in the past decade.
Dr. Tonge believes politicians have become too egocentric. “Everyone thinks they can do the job better than the incumbent,” he said. “It should be country, party, person, but those values have basically been reversed.”
Dr. Ford said there could be a number of factors, including Brexit, the increasing polarization of the electorate and changes in the way leaders are chosen by their parties.
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In recent years, the Conservatives and Labour have moved to a more open leadership selection process that gives party members a vote. Prior to that, leaders were chosen only by MPs. Because party members are not representative of the voting public, the choice of leader can reflect narrow views that aren’t widely popular, Dr. Ford said.
For example, Ms. Truss was elected Conservative leader and prime minister in 2022 by appealing to the right wing of the party. Once in office, her policies caused so much economic havoc that Tory MPs forced her to resign after less than two months as leader. The MPs then appointed runner-up Mr. Sunak to the role, without a membership vote.
Mr. Starmer won the Labour leadership in 2020 largely because party members saw him as a compromise candidate, even though his public approval rating was dismal.
“The crowning irony is that both of these parties did this imagining, vainly, that by democratizing – as they call it – their leadership selection process, they would help to make themselves look more appealing to a broad audience,” Dr. Ford said. “But it seems to have had exactly the opposite effect. It may well be accelerating their decline.”