![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/starmer_polls-m0lmpb.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAny member of Parliament would need the support of 20% of their colleagues to spark a leadership contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has not been triggered,\u201d Starmer told his Cabinet, effectively challenging any contenders to make their move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take responsibility for these election results and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised,\u201d Starmer said. But he echoed the remaining loyalists who say a leadership contest would be distracting at a time when the country needs real solutions to its longstanding issues. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe past 48 hours have been destabilizing for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n
Even so, just hours after he spoke, his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resigned her post and told Starmer his time was up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure we are grasping this rare opportunity with the gusto that\u2019s needed,\u201d she wrote in an open letter, \u201cand I cannot keep waiting around for a crisis to push for faster progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
That followed the resignation of Miatta Fahnbulleh, a junior minister, who told Starmer \u201cto do the right thing for the country\u201d and set out a timetable for a leadership transition.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Other ministers emerging from No. 10 early Tuesday remained loyal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prime minister is going to continue with his job, as he should,\u201d Pensions Minister Pat McFadden told the waiting news media. He said that no one had openly challenged Starmer around the large oval table inside.<\/p>\n
Tom Baldwin, a former Labour communications director who wrote a biography of Starmer and knows him well, told NBC News \u201cit\u2019s looking very rocky at the moment\u201d for the embattled leader. He described Starmer as \u201ca very stubborn and proud man\u201d who \u201cwon\u2019t want to be forced out like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister \u201cfeels a strong sense of duty that this is a really bad time\u201d for a leadership contest, Baldwin said, citing the \u201cwar going on in the Middle East which affects our security and our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer will \u201cdig his heels in quite hard, but whether that is enough stop him going is another matter,\u201d Baldwin said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any member of Parliament would need the support of 20% of their colleagues to spark a leadership contest.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-579939","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\/579939","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=579939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}