{"id":578658,"date":"2026-05-11T20:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/578658\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:12:09","slug":"four-ministerial-aides-quit-as-more-than-60-labour-mps-call-for-starmer-to-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/578658\/","title":{"rendered":"Four ministerial aides quit as more than 60 Labour MPs call for Starmer to resign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Starmer now faces pressure to resign from two Labour frontspublished at 19:40 BST<\/p>\n<p>19:40 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4c103344-c221-4117-8552-c919a61b6dc4.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Iain Watson<br \/>Political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The rumours of resignations came this afternoon. I was told they wouldn\u2019t be from the Burnham camp. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Now that they have begun, Keir Starmer faces pressure on two fronts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Already pressed for a timetable for his resignation from left and centre-left supporters of Andy Burnham, he now has calls for him to go from the right of the party &#8211; and so far three resignations of ministerial aides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">These are from people close to the health secretary Wes Streeting (and in some cases home secretary Shabana Mahmood.) But not all his detractors agree on the timetable for him to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Burnham backers want enough time for their pick to find a seat, fight a by-election and return to Westminster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some close to Streeting want a swift timetable that would exclude Burnham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There had been disagreement amongst MPs in the centre-right Labour First grouping between those who wanted a Streeting challenge and those who wanted the PM to stay in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Keir Starmer has said he will fight any challenge and I\u2019m told he has seen polling that suggests he might win a contest in which not just MPs, but the wider membership, would vote \u2013 so long as Burnham isn\u2019t on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If the challengers are Streeting and perhaps Angela Rayner, he may choose to fight on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But I\u2019m told the pressure is on him tonight to stand aside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So far only junior aides have gone but at least one of the camps has told me it might be necessary at some point to have ministerial resignations to concentrate his mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are also well-sourced suggestions that a further 50 MPs might call for his departure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If he does reach the conclusion that his premiership is unsustainable, the timescale for the subsequent leadership contest could determine the winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starmer now faces pressure to resign from two Labour frontspublished at 19:40 BST 19:40 BST Iain WatsonPolitical correspondent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-578658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}