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

FAIRFORD: The United States has started using British bases for certain operations against Iran during the Middle East war, the UK government announced on Saturday. Britain&#39;s defense ministry said the US had begun using the military sites for &quot;specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region.&quot; UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer annoyed US President Donald Trump for initially refusing to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran, which started a week ago, on February 28. He later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a &quot;specific and limited defensive purpose.&quot; Those bases are Fairford in Gloucestershire, southwestern England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. A US Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber landed at Fairford on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw. An American C-5 Galaxy plane could also be seen on the runway of the base, as anti-war protesters demonstrated outside. Trump had said he was &quot;not happy with the UK.&quot; He mocked Starmer, saying, &quot;This is not Winston Churchill that we&#39;re dealing with.&quot; London protestStarmer, a former human rights lawyer, has defended his initial decision by saying any UK action &quot;must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.&quot; He has also insisted that he was right to change that position because Iran&#39;s retaliation with missiles and drones to the US-Israeli strikes have threatened British interests and allies in the region. Lawmakers in Starmer&#39;s ruling Labour party remain haunted by former prime minister Tony Blair&#39;s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A Survation poll of 1,045 Britons published on Friday found that 56 percent of respondents believed Starmer was right not to involve Britain in the initial strikes. Only 27 percent said he was wrong. Several thousand people, many waving Iranian flags, marched through central London to the US embassy on Saturday to protest against the war. Some demonstrators waved placards with slogans including &quot;Stop Trump&#39;s Wars&quot; and &quot;Stop Arming Israel.&quot; UK media speculated that HMS Prince of Wales, one of Britain&#39;s two aircraft carriers, could be deployed to the Mediterranean after the government said it was quickening its preparedness. No decision has yet been taken, said the reports. &quot;HMS Prince of Wales has always been on very high readiness, and we are increasing the preparedness of the carrier, reducing the time it would take to set sail for any deployment,&quot; a defense ministry spokesperson said.

Middle East

United States started using British bases for certain operations against Iran during the Middle East war; Britain's defense ministry says US begun using military sites for "specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region"

Articles tagged with "UK government"

UK health minister quits amid leadership challenge to Prime Minister Starmer

US starts using UK bases for 'defensive' Iran operations