Stubborn Starmer defies Labour plotters - The Latest

Summary

Today in Focus: "Labour Plotters v Stubborn Starmer: Will He Resign?" – The Latest

Date: May 12, 2026
Host: Lucy Hough
Guest: Pippa Crerar, Political Editor, The Guardian

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Episode Overview

This concise, 10-minute "The Latest" special edition examines the growing crisis facing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The episode covers a day of heightened political tension, marked by multiple ministerial resignations, mounting calls from Labour MPs for Starmer to step down, and speculation about potential leadership contenders. Political editor Pippa Crerar provides on-the-ground analysis of what’s happening behind the scenes, the significance of recent developments, and the possible scenarios if Starmer’s leadership is formally challenged.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Context: Orchestrated Campaign Against Starmer

[01:22–02:28]

• Pippa Crerar describes the situation as "beginning to look like an orchestrated campaign" within Labour to unseat Starmer, suggesting coordination among his critics.

• Crerar highlights a significant shift from earlier discontent among ministerial aides to resignations from full ministers, signaling growing momentum against Starmer.

• Notably, even allies within the top team are expressing doubt about Starmer's ability to survive until the next election.

  "It's quite going to be increasingly hard to find anybody, even in his top team, that thinks Keir Starmer will definitely last until the next election."
  — Pippa Crerar [01:22]

2. Ministerial Resignations: Scale and Significance

[02:28–03:56]

• Three ministers resigned on the day of recording:

  • Yasmin Fanbulla: From the soft left, an Ed Miliband ally, previously uneasy with Starmer’s leadership.
  • Jess Phillips: Home Office minister; her resignation letter criticized Starmer for lacking grip on national challenges and moving too incrementally. She is also a close ally of Wes Streeting.
  • Alex Davies-Jones: Another Home Office minister and Streeting supporter, also voiced no confidence in Starmer.

• Crerar interprets these as especially significant due to the individuals' stature and connections and sees them as further evidence of a coordinated campaign.

  "It's now in the ministerial ranks... Jess Phillips sent a coruscating letter to the Prime Minister... she felt that the party couldn't continue."
  — Pippa Crerar [02:28]

3. Cabinet Meeting: Starmer Digs In

[03:56–04:44]

• Starmer holds a tense, pre-planned Cabinet meeting where he reaffirms his intent to fight on, claiming the threshold for a leadership challenge has not yet been met (no single candidate or contest).

• He acknowledges the destabilizing effect of ongoing speculation, citing concerns about economic and market impacts.

• Starmer offers ministers the opportunity for one-to-one meetings.

• A notable observation was the "brass neck" of Wes Streeting, present amid swirling rumors, facing what was described as "evil eyes" from some colleagues.

• Streeting’s position: open to running in a contest, but unwilling to initiate a challenge himself.

  "[Starmer] said that the threshold for a leadership challenge had not been met.... If ministers wanted to come to talk to him one to one, they could do that later."
  — Pippa Crerar [04:19]

4. Wes Streeting’s Calculations and Next Moves

[05:49–07:41]

• Streeting, Health Secretary and right-wing of the party, left the Cabinet meeting rapidly without addressing the press.

• Crerar reports Streeting continues to present himself as "planning, not plotting." He has told both colleagues and the Prime Minister that he would run should a contest arise but would not trigger it.

• Two of Streeting’s closest allies resigned that day, increasing speculation around his next steps.

• No other cabinet ministers had one-to-one meetings with Starmer, except for Richard Hermer, Attorney General and Starmer confidant.

• Crerar suggests more resignations may follow, and that declared and undeclared opposition within the cabinet is almost as significant as public calls for Starmer’s resignation.

  "His closest allies... are standing down, calling for the Prime Minister to stand down... we are expecting more resignations.... Look as much at who hasn't said anything publicly as to who has."
  — Pippa Crerar [07:41]

5. Alternative Leadership Scenarios: The Search for a Challenger

[09:15–11:08]

• Should Streeting challenge, the soft left is expected to rally around another candidate—possibly Ed Miliband or Angela Rayner.

• Andy Burnham was seen arriving in London, leading to speculation about his intentions. However, as he’s not an MP, he can’t stand for leader unless he secures a seat, which remains uncertain.

• Other possible candidates named: Louise Haigh (Tribune Group leader), Lucy Powell (Labour Deputy Leader).

• Crerar emphasizes the lack of certainty around any single challenger, revealing broad discontent and an unsettled opposition.

  "If Andy Burnham isn't in a position to run, the soft left will coalesce around at least one other leading figure."
  — Pippa Crerar [10:30]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "This is beginning to look like an orchestrated campaign... quite going to be increasingly hard to find anybody, even in his top team, that thinks Keir Starmer will definitely last until the next election."
  — Pippa Crerar [01:22]

• “She [Jess Phillips] sent a coruscating letter to the Prime Minister in which she said that he hadn't got a grip of the big challenges facing the country and he was being far too incremental in his delivery and that she felt that the party couldn't continue.”
  — Pippa Crerar [02:38]

• "[Starmer] is right in that just because people are writing letters... there isn’t a candidate, there isn’t a contest."
  — Pippa Crerar [04:19]

• "Some ministers were giving evil eyes in [Streeting's] direction."
  — Pippa Crerar [04:44]

• "He's planning, not plotting."
  — Pippa Crerar, on Wes Streeting [07:41]

• "It's really important that people look as much at who hasn't said anything publicly as to who has."
  — Pippa Crerar [08:40]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:22] – Crerar: Orchestrated campaign against Starmer
• [02:28] – Details on ministerial resignations and their significance
• [03:56] – Cabinet meeting: Starmer’s response and internal dynamics
• [04:44] – Wes Streeting’s demeanor and position
• [07:41] – Streeting’s calculations and the implications of his allies’ resignations
• [09:15] – Alternative leadership contenders; scenario if Burnham cannot stand

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Tone and Language

Throughout, the tone is urgent, analytical, and occasionally wry—reflective of a fast-moving news day in Westminster. Crerar’s reporting combines inside knowledge, a tally of political maneuvers, and a skeptical view of official reassurances, creating an atmosphere of high drama and ongoing uncertainty.

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Summary

This episode provides a sharp, succinct analysis of the major crisis engulfing the Labour Party and Keir Starmer’s leadership. It examines the cascading resignations, the atmosphere at the highest government levels, the possible challengers for Labour’s top job, and the real-time calculations taking place among ministers and factions. For listeners, it offers both a clear narrative of the day’s events and a useful guide to the turbulent politics at play behind the headlines.

Transcript

[Pippa Crerar]

This is the Guardian.

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[Pippa Crerar]

I've been speaking to ministers subsequently, including in the Cabinet, who say this is beginning to look like an orchestrated campaign. We're streaming to underbe Prime Minister should Wes Streeting decide to go for it. If Andy Burnham isn't in a position to run that this off left will coalesce around at least one other leading figure and whether that's Ed Miliband, whether that's Angela Rayner, I think it's quite going to be increasingly hard to find anybody, even in his top team, that thinks Keir Starmer will definitely last until the next election.

[Lucy Half]

Ministers resign after Keir Starmer tells his Cabinet he's not stepping down as Prime Minister, despite more than 80 MPs calling for him to go. And how much longer has he got from the Guardians today in Vocus? This is the latest. With me, Lucy Half. Well, joining me is Pippa Kreira, our political editor. Pippa, thank you for joining us on a very, very busy and tense day. Normally we would ask our political correspondents and editors to go about 15 minutes up some flights of stairs in Westminster, but it's too busy a day for that. So you're in the Guardian office. Let's start with the ministerial resignations that we've had three of them today against Keir Starmer. How significant and how damaging are.

[Pippa Crerar]

So it's worth just saying, Lucy, that of course all of this is against the backdrop of what happened yesterday at a very dramatic day at Westminster when dozens of Labour MPs publicly called for the Prime Minister to go to set out an orderly timetable for his departure, including some ministerial aides, but not ministers. And the biggest significance of what's happened this morning or today already is that we're now in the ministerial ranks. So three ministers, as you say, have gone. One of them, Yata Fanbulla, is of the soft left, an ally of Ed Miliband and actually somebody, we're told, who, who had previously considered her position, wasn't necessarily very happy with the way things were going. And it is the two subsequent resignations which are much more significant really in the context of everything that's happening here at Westminster. One of them, of course, Jess Phillips, a very well known minister, Home Office, she was responsible for safeguarding and she sent a coruscating letter to the Prime Minister in which he said that he hadn't got a grip of the big challenges facing the country and he was being far too incremental in, in his delivery and that she felt that the party couldn't continue. Crucially, she is a close friend and ally of Wes Streeting. The third resignation, a woman called Alex Davis Jones, LUBA mp, who is also in the Home Office, said that she also didn't have faith in Keir Starmer's premiership. She is also an ally of Streeting and at this point I've been speaking to ministers subsequently, including in the Cabinet, who say this is beginning to look like an orchestrated campaign.

[Lucy Half]

Right, well, all eyes on Wes and particularly all eyes were on Wes in what sounds like quite a tense Cabinet meeting this morning where Keir Starmer gave a kind of address, didn't he, without taking questions from ministers, effectively saying, let's get on with the job of governing. What do we know about the vibe in that room?

[Pippa Crerar]

Yeah, that's right. So Keir Starmer had a pre planned cabinet meeting at 9am with his ministers and he opened it by telling them that he's going to fight on as Prime Minister. Minister saying that the threshold for a leadership challenge had not been met. He's of course right in that just because people are writing letters saying that he, they wanted him to go, there isn't a candidate, there isn't a contest.

[Lucy Half]

And making those letters have to back one particular candidate, don't they? Just abroad wanting to topple a leader.

[Pippa Crerar]

Yeah. And he made the point that the last 48 hours and all the speculation around his future has been incredibly destabilizing for the government. And of course that is an economic cost because it's an impact on the markets and therefore it has an impact on every know people right across the country. So he made his opening statement. He said that if ministers wanted to come to talk to him one to one, they could do that later. And then the. The whole meeting moved on to talking about the Middle east and other issues that the government is dealing with. And I'm told by sources in the room that where Streeting came in acted entirely normally, despite all the speculation about whether he may or may not go over the top. One colleague described him as having a brass neck. Somebody else suggested that some of his colleagues are very angry because they feel that he is among those in the Labour movement, Labour Party that's destabilised the Prime Minister and suggested that some ministers were giving evils, evil eyes in his. In his direction. So should probably say that Wes Treating has always said that you would run in a contest should somebody else initiate one, but that he didn't want to be the person to start it off, to kick it off himself. Whether that's changed over the last 24 hours, we just don't know.

[Lucy Half]

Yeah, and we are obviously waiting to hear whether he decides that now is the moment to move or not. As per your reporting, West Streeting reportedly requested a meeting with Keir Starmer after the Cabinet meeting that Keir Starmer refused. Do we know who else he's been talking to this morning?

[Pippa Crerar]

We knew that no other Cabinet ministers had meetings with him before or after the Cabinet, apart from Richard Hermer, the Attorney General, who is of course not just a close colleague, but a close friend of the Prime Minister. They started to legal career 30 years ago together and he would have been seeking his counsel. We also know that the Downing street operation has been bolstered that yesterday David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, Johnny Reynolds, the Chief Whip, were in there most of the day. I imagine they'll be spending some time in there today. And Darren Jones, who of course is the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary, has been heavily involved in all of this as well. So we've started seeing a bit of a Downing street fight back, although really not on the scale that you might expect given the precariousness of the Prime Minister's position and not replicating the sort of fight back we saw after Anna Sawa, Labour's Scottish leader, called for Keir Starmer to go in February. Nevertheless, some ministers came out of that Cabinet meeting, went straight to the cameras outside Downing street and said that they thought that Keir Starmer should stay in post. Privately, some of them Add not necessarily the ones talking to the camera, but others add. For now, I think it's quite getting increasingly hard to find anybody, even in his top team, that thinks Keir Starmer will definitely last until the next election.

[Lucy Half]

One person who didn't stop to talk to the press was Wes Streeting, who made a fairly rapid departure. What do we know about what he's weighing up about whether now is the right time to go? What sorts of conversations are his allies having particularly given us? Two of his key allies have resigned today.

[Pippa Crerar]

Yeah, well, I do think, as I said, it's important to note that he's been quite open in recent weeks, including with the Prime Minister. We understand that should a contest arise, that he would want to run, that he's ambitious, that he sees himself as a future Prime Minister Minister. The distinction he's always made, though, is that he's planning, not plotting. And some of his very close friends insist that he has not got an ops plan ready to press the button on, you know, people to. Ready to go into jobs, necessarily the numbers required to trigger an official contest. 81, although I believe they feel that they could get the numbers should they. Should they decide to go over the top. But it's just increasingly feeling like it's too circumstantial that his closest allies, aides and ministers who are very much, you know, in his camp, are standing down, calling for the Prime Minister to stand down. As I said, we are expecting more resignations. It'd be really interesting to see who they might ally themselves with, what camp they're in. And, of course, where's Streeting himself? Does he say anything on the eve of the King's speech, when the Prime Minister's made it so clear that he wants to stay put, do other Cabinet ministers act? I mean, there's some speculation that, you know, some of those who are unhappy about Keir Starmer's position right now and think that thinks that a change needs to be made, could themselves decide to either quit or to say or to make public comments. I think it's really important that people look as much as who at who hasn't said anything publicly as to who has, but.

[Lucy Half]

But also crucially that West Reading is to the right of the Labour Party and that if he does did announce his decision to challenge Starmer, then it's being reported that someone like Ed Miliband of the soft left would challenge him. Right. Meanwhile, lots of questions about Andy Burnham, who has traveled, we understand, from Manchester on a train to Euston this morning. He was pictured Getting off a train there, presumably lots of people wanting to talk to him. But there is, of course, this issue about his return to Westminster, a search for a seat that he might run in. What are you hearing there?

[Pippa Crerar]

Well, we don't know why Andy Burnham is in London and what meetings he's having, whether he's meeting with Labour MPs, whether he's meeting with those on the Green benches already who are supporting him, who are his fairly open backers, that's unclear, but we know what his ambitions are as well. The reality is that he can't trigger any contest himself, because, as you say, he's not an mp. And even if he has identified deceit, and we've been obviously going around all of them and trying to find out which one it might be in the Northwest, there's no guarantee that he would get selected. Even if the opinion on Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, which blocked him last time, is softening, there's no guarantee that he would win a seat that he then was selected for, given reform success across the Northwest in the elections. And there's no guarantee that Labour MPs would come in behind him, should he make back to Westminster. I think it is really important, as you say, Lucy, to note that should Res streeting decide to go for it and decide to go for the leadership, that if Andy Burnham isn't in a position to run, that the soft left will coalesce around at least one other leading figure. And whether that's Ed Miliband, whether that's Angela Rayner, whether that's somebody like Louise Haig, who runs the Tribune Group and so far has been fairly supportive of Andy Burnham, whether that is somebody like Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Labour Party. I mean, all those options are on the table.

[Lucy Half]

Lots of options on the table, Pippa. And I know you're in the middle of a very, very busy day. Thank you so much for your time.

[Pippa Crerar]

Thanks for having me.

[Lucy Half]

That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Pippa Crerar, our political editor. You can keep up with her reporting and our lobby team [e-mail] as well as our Politics Live blog. Before we go, I just wanted to tell you about a new video podcast that our New York office is launching. It's called Stateside with Kai and Carter, and it's hosted by our colleagues, Kai Wright and Carter Sherman. Each week, they're going to be making sense of some of the biggest stories happening right now. The show will feature conversations with some of the smartest thinkers and reporters not just from the Guardian but across the world. It's launching on the 13th of May, with episodes of every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can find it in full video on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to this episode of the latest Today in Focus will be back in your feeds as usual tomorrow morning. The latest will be back tomorrow night. This episode was presented by me, Lucy Hoff. It was produced by Sam Grouet. The senior producer was Bryony Moore. The lead producer was Zoe Hitch.

[Pippa Crerar]

This is the Guardian.

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