Cabinet rallies around Starmer as Scottish Labour leader calls on PM to quit
Every Cabinet minister, alongside former deputy leader Angela Rayner, has given public backing to Sir Keir Starmer’s position, following a speech from the Scottish Labour leader calling for the PM to step down.
Possible leadership contenders, also including Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband, have posted supportive messages on social media in quick succession.
Anas Sarwar has said that “leadership in Downing Street needs to change” and “the distraction needs to end”.
The Glasgow MSP said: “The situation in Downing Street is not good enough. There have been too many mistakes.
“They promised they were going to be different, but too much has happened.”
Sarwar says that the decision to speak out against the Labour leadership is “not easy and not without pain”, but: “I have to do what’s right for my country, Scotland.”
He added: “We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland.”
This intervention piles yet more pressure on Starmer, who has already lost his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his communications chief Tim Allan in the past 24 hours.
Market jitters are growing over the prospect of Starmer stepping down, with 10-year gilts up 9 basis points so far.
In response, a Downing Street spokesperson has said: “Keir Starmer is one of only four Labour leaders ever to have won a general election.
“He has a clear five-year mandate from the British people to deliver change, and that is what he will do.”
Cabinet stays broadly loyal (so far…)
Supportive messages have been posted on social media from senior ministers including Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Yvette Cooper, Bridget Phillipson and John Healey.
Deputy PM David Lammy has defended Keir Starmer’s position, pointing to his “massive mandate”, adding: “We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.”
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Prime Minister, said: “All of us in the Labour Party must get behind the Prime Minister, rise to the challenge and deliver a richer, fairer and stronger future.”
There has been no word so far from possible leadership contenders Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting.
Labour faces uphill battle in Scotland
Speculation over the Prime Minister’s position has ramped up to a fever pitch, following revelations from the latest trance of Epstein files documents that appeared to show US ambassador Peter Mandelson leaking sensitive information to the late paedophile financier.
In 2024, Labour won 37 seats in Scotland – up from just one in the previous election – but the deep unpopularity of the government in Westminster has dragged polling figures down.
Scottish Labour is facing an extremely difficult set of Holyrood elections in May, currently polling at just 15 per cent.
That places the party third place behind the SNP and Reform, according to Yougov polling.
Is Anas Sarwar a surprising stalking horse?
Though the Labour Party is considerably less experienced at regicide than the Conservatives, it has been broadly expected that no major contender for Number 10 would be first to break cover.
However, Sarwar is from a broadly similar wing of the party as Starmer, first elected as Labour’s leader in Scotland in 2021 and at the time representing a break from the more Corbynite leadership of predecessor Richard Leonard.
However, he has broken from Starmer on some policy issues, chiefly in 2023 when he called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Labour MP Karl Turner has slammed the intervention as a “mistake” and Sarwar as “disloyal”, telling Times Radio: “I think Keir Starmer is unpopular in the country and the Labour government are unpopular in the country.
“I think Anas has bottled it and decided to call for the PM to go on the basis that it might improve Scottish Labour’s chances of forming a government there.”