Sir Keir Starmer’s own Cabinet ministers have lost confidence in the Prime Minister’s leadership,
The i Paper can reveal – as Wes Streeting’s allies suggested they were open to a pact with Angela Rayner to succeed him.
A Cabinet minister told
The i Paper that they had lost patience with Starmer but that it was up to the Cabinet as a whole to move to depose him.
“It’s bleak,” they said, reflecting on the PM’s position after
another week dominated by the fallout of the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to Washington. “It’s a question for the Cabinet and colleagues need to come to a view. I know what my view is.”
A spokesperson for Starmer said he is proud of the work being done by his Cabinet and that “nothing will distract the PM from delivering for our country”.
Following days of fresh revelations about the culture in Starmer’s No 10, Labour MPs are frustrated and angry. At Westminster some described how their party is caught in a Groundhog Day. No senior challenger is in a secure enough position to unseat Starmer, but the party is locked in endless circular discussions about whether their leader is up to the job.
That’s led some to call for Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to form a pact to unite different wings of the party and avoid a bloody leadership contest. That idea is fraught with complexities.
“We can’t go on like this. Wes and Ange have got to come to some accommodation,” a minister said.
Allies of Streeting said he is warmer to the idea than Rayner is. While the pair get on superficially well, they come from different traditions in the party: Streeting on the centrist wing and Rayner the soft left. They also have bad blood after Streeting helped organise moves to deselect former MP Sam Tarry, Rayner’s partner, after a bitter row over the Ilford South seat in 2022. Spokespeople for both MPs declined to comment.
Rayner is currently on the backbenches while she awaits the outcome of an HMRC investigation into whether she paid the correct amount of stamp duty on her £800,000 seafront apartment in Hove. Even so, some Labour MPs see her as the frontrunner to succeed Starmer. On Tuesday evening, in her latest intervention, she called for “bold” action from the premier to tackle cost of living pressures.
There are obvious drawbacks to any suggestion of a deal between the pair. “I just don’t see how it works. Question One is ‘Who is first on the ticket?’ never mind the next 35 questions that follow,” a Government source said. “Could Ange even be touted as Chancellor? The bond markets would go nuts.”
Several Labour MPs talked up the prospect of Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper taking over from Starmer, perhaps in a temporary capacity. In a sign some MPs were letting their imaginations run ahead of them, one suggested a three-way pact between Rayner, Streeting and Cooper. “In that scenario you have Yvette as leader, a steady pair of hands. You give Ange foreign secretary and make Wes Chancellor. That way you have Brownite, soft left and Blairite all together,” they suggested.
Starmer is becoming increasingly isolated as Cabinet ministers publicly distanced themselves from the Prime Minister after he faced claims of bullying officials into approving Mandelson’s appointment. On Tuesday, in a high-stakes appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee, sacked
mandarin Sir Oliver Robbins, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, accused Downing Street of exerting “constant pressure” on officials and taking a “dismissive approach” to security checks on Mandelson.
In another bombshell, Robbins also revealed No 10 had attempted to find an ambassador’s job for Starmer’s political spin doctor Matthew Doyle behind the back of David Lammy, the then foreign secretary. Starmer did not deny it when pressed at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying there had been discussions “but nothing came of this.”
Pat McFadden, the normally loyal work and pensions secretary, repeatedly declined to say he believed Starmer’s decision to sack Robbins was reasonable. Asked on
Times Radio on Wednesday morning if the sacking felt fair, McFadden said he thought “very highly” of Robbins but added: “I think if the Prime Minister’s made the judgment that he’s not got confidence in the head of the Foreign Office, the head of the foreign service, then it’s difficult to continue.”
Asked again if it was fair, McFadden said: “Look, it’s the Prime Minister’s judgment.” Asked a third time, McFadden said: “As a Cabinet member, I support the Prime Minister’s decisions
By afternoon McFadden had issued a fresh statement. “I think that MPs should support the Prime Minister.
“He’s been in office less than two years. He led the Labour Party to a very big election victory just under two years ago, and I think we’ve had far too many changes to prime minister in the UK in the last decade. It hasn’t done the country much good,” he said.
Cooper said the alleged failure to inform Lammy of plans to make Doyle an ambassador was “extremely concerning.” Her remarks followed Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, who said on Tuesday he had concerns at the time that Mandelson’s appointment would “blow up” and disclosed that Lammy had concerns about Starmer’s decision too.
Starmer was widely credited for distancing the UK from the US-Israeli war on Iran. But he has since faced criticism both for sacking Robbins and for reminding Labour MPs of his lack of judgment in appointing Mandelson in the first place.
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We are back to where we were three months ago; people are now saying he’s got to go after May [local election results]. Only recently they were saying he could last longer after that strong showing on Iran but after this week that’s evaporated again. We are going round in circles,” a minister told The i Paper.
A second minister disagreed Starmer would go so soon. “We’re in a holding pattern until the end of the calendar year. One of the major movers needs to make a move and they aren’t in a position to. A random backbencher tweeting they’re gonna walk to prompt a challenge when they’re drunk doesn’t cut it,” they said.
Even so, public criticism of the Prime Minister was beginning to surface from hitherto loyal MPs.
Polly Billington, the vice chairwoman of the parliamentary Labour Party and a former special advisor to Miliband, refused to say that she trusts Starmer’s judgment.
Speaking on the
BBC’s World At One, the MP for East Thanet was repeatedly pressed on the issue but declined to address it directly. When asked whether Starmer is up to the job and whether he has the judgment required to carry on, the Labour MP replied: “What I am focused on is that we are clear we have a mandate from the British people in order to be able to deliver the change they wanted.”
Jonathan Brash, Labour MP for Hartlepool also told
GB News “It’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, you know, as far as the Prime Minister’s concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”
“I don’t think anyone reasonably expects the Prime Minister to lead the party into the next election,” Brash added.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, frontbench Conservatives waved and mouthed “bye-bye” at Starmer. Meanwhile, Labour MPs were mostly withdrawn during exchanges with Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch.
Badenoch told Starmer Labour backbenchers know it is “not fair” that Robbins was sacked and asked the Prime Minister to “take responsibility and go”. In reply, Starmer repeated that he was not informed about the Foreign Office going against the vetting service’s recommendations – which he calls a “very serious error of judgement”.
Allies of the Prime Minister are looking towards the end of the Parliamentary term, expected to be April 28, when MPs will dissipate to their constituencies to campaign in local elections. But there are hurdles to jump first. On Thursday Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office will be questioned by the Foreign Affairs Committee. Next Tuesday, Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief aide – who quit over his role pushing for Mandelson’s appointment – will also face the same MPs.
And on Wednesday, there were also Labour calls not to rock the boat. “I think it would be folly when we’ve got what’s happening in terms of geopolitics,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told Bloomberg News when asked whether he thought the Labour party, of which he is a member, would replace Starmer by the end of the year.
A No10 spokesperson said: “Nothing will distract the PM from delivering for our country. He is proud of the work being done by his Cabinet including NHS waiting lists coming down, the biggest upgrade workers’ rights in a generation, and lifting half a million children out of poverty. That’s the difference a Labour Government makes.”
