LONDON:&nbsp;British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will stand if a leadership contest is triggered, a senior minister said Sunday, after media reported Starmer had contacted key backers insisting he would run in any race. This came after popular northern mayor Any Burnham, who is standing in a key by-election this month, said last week he would participate in any leadership race, although none has yet been triggered. Starmer &quot;has been absolutely clear -- were there to be a contest &nbsp;-- you need <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/uk-govt-to-release-second-batch-of-files-on-exus-envoy-mandelson" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">81 signatures</a> (of MPs) to launch a contest -- he will be part of that contest,&quot; Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told Sky News on Sunday. The <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/british-pm-battles-to-stay-in-power-amid-rebellion" style="color:#0073e6;">prime minister</a> would automatically be included in any leadership ballot if he wanted to participate.&nbsp;&lsquo;Fight it&rsquo;The BBC and The Sun newspaper reported Sunday, citing unnamed MPs, that Starmer has been calling key supporters this weekend to say that if there is a contest he would &quot;fight it&quot;. The Sun reported: &quot;Sir Keir has hardened his position and is hellbent on running against Mr Burnham.&quot; Labour veteran Burnham is standing to become an MP again in a June 18 vote in Makerfield in northwestern England.&nbsp; If elected, he would be able to take part in a leadership contest. Burnham said on a BBC talkshow Thursday that he would seek to challenge Starmer if he won the by-election and if a race is triggered.&nbsp;&lsquo;Not going to walk away&rsquo;He said former health minister Wes Streeting, who resigned last month with an open letter expressing no confidence in Starmer, &quot;seems to have launched a leadership contest. So if that is running, I would seek to join it.&quot; The prime minister has repeatedly rejected calls to resign and insisted he wants to stay on as leader of the Labour party after winning a general election in 2024. Starmer told LBC radio station on Friday &quot;I&#39;m not going to walk away&quot;, adding he did not want to &quot;plunge our country into the chaos of a leadership fight&quot;.

United Kingdom

This comes after popular northern mayor Andy Burnham, who is standing in a key by-election this month, says he will participate in any leadership race, although none has yet been triggered.

Starmer will be 'part of' any leadership race: British deputy PM

LONDON: Britain&#39;s health minister Wes Streeting announced on Thursday that he had resigned, paving the way for him to launch a leadership challenge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/british-pm-battles-to-stay-in-power-amid-rebellion" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">against embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.</a> In his resignation letter to Starmer, which Streeting posted on X, he said: &quot;It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/possible-contenders-if-uk-pm-starmer-quits" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">next general election</a>&quot;. He added that he had &quot;lost confidence&quot; in Starmer&#39;s leadership, and a debate about what comes next for the ruling party &quot;needs to be broad, and it needs to be the best possible field of candidates&quot;. Streeting, 43, did not say whether he had the required support of 81 Labour MPs &ndash; 20% of the party in parliament &ndash; to trigger a contest. Starmer, who led his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pressure-grows-on-uks-starmer-to-quit-as-pm" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Labour Party</a>&nbsp;to victory in 2024 elections ending 14 years of Conservative rule, is fighting to save his job after disastrous local and regional polls last week. Four junior ministers have resigned and more than 80 Labour MPs have urged him to quit, but he has vowed to cling on and more than 100 lawmakers from the ruling party have called for him to stay. On Thursday, his former deputy Angela Rayner announced that UK tax authorities had &quot;cleared&quot; her of deliberate wrongdoing in a tax affair, opening the way for her to compete in a potential leadership race. The 46-year-old insisted she would not be the one to trigger a contest, but told the Guardian newspaper she would play &quot;whatever role I can&quot; to &quot;deliver the change&quot;. Rayner, a left-wing figurehead hugely popular among Labour&#39;s grassroots activists, also called on Starmer to &quot;reflect&quot; on his position. She was forced to step down in September for underpaying a property duty, but said on Thursday the UK tax authority HMRC had exonerated her of &quot;the accusation that I deliberately sought to avoid tax&quot;. Rayner quit as deputy PM and housing, communities and local government minister after an investigation found she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England. Media reported she had paid off &pound;40,000 ($54,000) in outstanding tax. Local poll drubbing Streeting is popular on the right of Labour, but is disliked by MPs on the left who would prefer Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as leader. Burnham is currently blocked from running as he does not have a seat in the Westminster parliament. His supporters want Starmer to set a detailed timetable for his departure that allows Burnham to stand. Starmer&#39;s spokesman insisted Thursday that the prime minister was going nowhere. He &quot;is purely focused on governing. He is getting on with the job of doing just that,&quot; the spokesman told reporters. Voters last week punished Starmer over his 22 months in power in local ballots which saw huge gains for the hard-right Reform UK party and the left-wing populist Greens at Labour&#39;s expense. The Labour Party lost control of the devolved Welsh parliament for the first time and failed to make up ground on the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the parliament in Edinburgh. Rayner earlier stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign, but said voters were frustrated with the way the government was being run. Starmer has vowed to fight any contest and came out fighting on Monday, pledging to do better and prove his doubters &quot;wrong&quot;. He has been backed by several senior cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, who urged colleagues Thursday not to put the economy &quot;at risk&quot; by &quot;plunging the country into chaos&quot; with a leadership challenge.

Britain's Health Secretary Wes Streeting (L) listens as Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech on a plan to reduce NHS waiting times, during a visit to the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC) in Epsom, south-west of Lon

Europe

Resignation adds to pressure within the Labour Party as internal divisions deepen, with senior figures questioning leadership direction following recent political setbacks and growing uncertainty over party unity and stability.

UK health minister quits amid leadership challenge to Prime Minister Starmer

LONDON: Britain&#39;s Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday vowed to prove his doubters wrong and stem mounting calls for him to step down after disastrous local and regional elections for his ruling Labour Party. But more than 60 of Labour&#39;s 403 MPs asked him to step down, unconvinced by his pledge to make the party bolder and better to assuage disgruntled voters impatient for change. They included four government aides who resigned from their positions. Joe Morris, who was a parliamentary private secretary to Health Secretary Wes Streeting -- widely rumoured to be considering a leadership challenge -- wrote on X that it was &quot;now clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change&quot;. Another, Tom Rutland, who was an aide to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, said Starmer had &quot;lost authority&quot; among Labour MPs and &quot;will not be able to regain it&quot;. Melanie Ward, who was an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, called for new leadership. &quot;Keir Starmer did important work to change the Labour Party, and governing in a time like this will never be easy,&quot; she said on X. &quot;But the message from last week&rsquo;s elections was clear; the Prime Minister has lost the confidence of the public to lead this change.&quot; &#39;New leadership&#39; neededCabinet Office aide Naushabah Khan, who also resigned, added: &quot;I am calling for new leadership so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for.&quot; 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. But that would likely spark a damaging bout of infighting, with MPs from the left and right of the party battling to position their preferred candidate or shore up Starmer. 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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;s frustration with the state of the country, politics and his leadership. &quot;I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will,&quot; he said. He promised &quot;a bigger response&quot; rather than &quot;incremental change&quot; in areas such as economic growth, closer European ties, and energy. He pledged to fully nationalize British Steel and, in the strongest condemnation since Britain&#39;s acrimonious departure from the European Union in 2020, said Brexit had left the UK poorer, weaker and less secure. Nigel Farage, who leads Reform UK and is tipped as a possible future prime minister, was a &quot;chancer&quot; and &quot;grifter&quot; whose virulent pro-Brexit campaign had taken Britain &quot;for a ride&quot;, he said. &quot;If we don&#39;t get this right, our country will go down a very dark path,&quot; he warned. Who succeeds?&nbsp;After the speech, MP Catherine West, who had threatened to trigger a leadership challenge on Monday, 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. Starmer pledged to fight any challenge and warned Labour would &quot;never be forgiven&quot; by voters if it imitated the &quot;chaos&quot; of the previous Conservative government, which went through five prime ministers since 2010, including three in just four months in 2022. It has long been rumored that Health Secretary Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner could try to oust Starmer. But neither is universally popular within Labour. Rayner, who has stopped short of calling for Starmer to quit, said in a speech of her own Monday that &quot;what we are doing isn&#39;t working, and it needs to change&quot;.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) and his wife Victoria Starmer (R) leave after casting their votes at a polling station in Westminster Chapel, central London on May 7, 2026, as polls open for local elections. (AFP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting calls to resign after heavy Labour election losses, with more than 60 MPs demanding new leadership as he vows to restore public trust and warns Britain risked heading down a 'dark path'.

Pressure grows on UK's Starmer to quit as PM

LONDON: British lawmakers debated Tuesday whether to launch a parliamentary probe into Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in a scandal surrounding sacked US envoy Peter Mandelson that he is struggling to shake off. Members of parliament discussed whether to refer Starmer to a committee to consider if he misled parliament over the appointment of the ex-associate of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the plum diplomatic post. It is the latest development in an unrelenting controversy that has plagued Starmer&#39;s Labour government for months, hampering its work and leading to calls for him to resign. Opposition Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said it was &quot;very obvious&quot; that what Starmer had told the House of Commons regarding Mandelson&#39;s 2024 appointment was &quot;not correct&quot;. &quot;It&#39;s clear that full due process was not followed,&quot; she told MPs, opening the debate, which was expected to last several hours and conclude with a vote on whether to open an inquiry. Starmer denies allegations that his office applied pressure on the foreign ministry to approve Mandelson&#39;s appointment as Britain&#39;s ambassador in Washington despite having failed security vetting. Earlier this month, Starmer sacked the most senior civil servant in the foreign office, Olly Robbins, for not telling him or other ministers that Mandelson had not passed the checks. Starmer commands a large majority in the lower house of parliament. MPs from his ruling Labour party have been ordered to vote against the motion, meaning it is unlikely to pass. Speaking&nbsp;to Sky News late on Monday, the prime minister branded the move &quot;a political stunt&quot; ahead of local elections in England, Scotland and Wales next week. &quot;We&#39;ve got huge amounts of transparency going on already,&quot; Starmer insisted. &#39;Serious mistake&#39; Starmer sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after a fresh batch of revelations came to light about the extent of the latter&#39;s friendship with Epstein, who reportedly died in prison in 2019. But the row has only escalated since, with Starmer&#39;s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and ex-communications head Tim Allan forced to step down earlier this year. Starmer&#39;s cause has not been helped by the fact that UK police are investigating Mandelson over allegations he committed misconduct in office while serving as a Labour minister more than a decade ago. Mandelson is accused of leaking sensitive information to Epstein. He denies wrongdoing. On Tuesday, McSweeney told parliament&#39;s foreign affairs committee that he made a &quot;serious mistake&quot; in&nbsp;advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson. He denied telling officials that Mandelson&#39;s vetting checks &quot;should be cleared at all costs&quot;. Earlier, Robbins&#39; predecessor at the foreign office, Philip Barton, told the committee that it was unusual for an appointment to be announced before the vetting process was completed. MPs will decide whether the cross-party privileges committee, which investigates potential breaches of parliamentary conduct, should look into Starmer. That committee was responsible for former prime minister Boris Johnson&#39;s exit from frontline politics after it investigated him for misleading parliament over the so-called &quot;partygate&quot; breaches of Covid-19 laws. He quit as an MP in 2023 before the committee published a report recommending his suspension.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks during a visit to the Kenton district of London on April 23, 2026. (AFP)

British lawmakers debated launching a probe into Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the controversial Peter Mandelson appointment, amid claims he misled the British Parliament and bypassed proper vetting.

UK PM Starmer faces possible parliament inquiry over Mandelson

LONDON: British government ministers on Sunday backed embattled premier Keir Starmer as he struggles to shake off a scandal over long-time Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson. Starmer is due to face lawmakers in parliament on Monday to explain how Mandelson was appointed Britain&#39;s ambassador to the United States in late 2024 despite failing to pass security checks. The prime minister, who has been dogged by the controversy for months, said Friday that he and other ministers were not told Mandelson had failed the vetting process, calling that &quot;unforgivable&quot;. He has blamed foreign office mandarins for allowing Mandelson&#39;s appointment against the advice of security officials, and sacked the department&#39;s top civil servant Olly Robins on Thursday. But ex-civil servants have accused Dowing Street of scapegoating Robbins while opposition leaders have called for Starmer to quit, with accusations ranging from incompetence to wilful misleading of the public. Technology minister Liz Kendall told the BBC on Sunday that Starmer would not have appointed Mandelson had he known that he had not received the appropriate security clearance. Deputy prime minister David Lammy, who was foreign secretary when Mandelson was appointed to Washington, said the same in an interview with the Guardian published late Saturday.&nbsp;&lsquo;Made the right call&rsquo;Kendall said Starmer should remain in his job because he had &quot;made the right call&quot; on big issues, such as building closer relations with the European Union and limiting Britain&#39;s involvement in the US-Israel war on Iran. &quot;I think he is an honest man and a man of integrity who says it was a mistake to appoint him,&quot; she told Sky News. Lammy said it was &quot;inexplicable&quot; that the foreign office had kept Downing Street in the dark, telling the Guardian he had been &quot;shocked and surprised&quot; when he learnt what happened. Starmer, already widely unpopular with the British public due to several policy mis-steps, has faced repeated questions about his judgement for selecting Mandelson whose friendship with Epstein was well known.&nbsp;Mandelson&rsquo;s sacking&nbsp;He sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after new details emerged about the depth of Mandelson&#39;s ties to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges. UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago. He was arrested and released in February. Mandelson has not been charged and denies criminal wrongdoing.

Technology minister Liz Kendall says Starmer shall remain in his job because he has 'made the right call' on big issues, such as building closer relations with the European Union and limiting Britain's involvement in the Iran war.

Articles tagged with "UK Labour Party"

Starmer will be 'part of' any leadership race: British deputy PM

UK health minister quits amid leadership challenge to Prime Minister Starmer

Pressure grows on UK's Starmer to quit as PM

UK PM Starmer faces possible parliament inquiry over Mandelson

UK ministers back Starmer amid fresh calls to quit

Starmer will be 'part of' any leadership race: British deputy PM