Sir Keir Starmer was due to meet his cabinet on Monday in an attempt to steady his leadership, as a growing number of Labour MPs called on the prime minister either to resign or to name the date on which he would.
The pressure has built since this month’s local and devolved elections, in which Labour lost close to 1,500 seats on English councils. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the chief beneficiary, gaining 1,454 seats and overturning Labour majorities in parts of the party’s traditional northern and Midlands heartlands.
The discontent has begun to take institutional shape. Labour’s National Executive Committee has given Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor long touted as a potential successor, permission to stand for a seat in the House of Commons — a necessary step for any leadership bid, since Mr Burnham is not currently an MP.
The opening was created by Josh Simons, the MP for Makerfield, who said last week that he was willing to resign his seat to allow Mr Burnham to contest the resulting by-election. Mr Burnham, nicknamed the “King of the North” by the British press, has built a substantial power base in the north-west of England.
The manoeuvring points to a protracted period of uncertainty. Commentators have described the situation as a slow-motion challenge to Sir Keir’s authority, one that could leave Westminster in a state of leadership limbo for weeks rather than days.
The instability has reached the financial markets. UK government bond yields steadied on Monday after a heavy sell-off last week, as traders weighed whether a contest for the Labour leadership posed a threat to the country’s fiscal credibility.
Borrowing costs have been under pressure since the election results landed, with investors uneasy about both the political direction of the government and the durability of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s spending plans.
Sir Keir, who led Labour to a landslide victory less than two years ago, has so far given no indication that he intends to step aside. Allies argue that a leadership contest now would deepen the party’s troubles rather than resolve them.
Monday’s cabinet meeting will offer the first test of whether senior ministers are prepared to hold the line behind the prime minister, or whether the calls for a timetabled departure will spread from the back benches to the top of government.