Keir Starmer is in “listening” mode, a senior cabinet ally has suggested as the prime minister faces a chorus of calls to resign.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, insisted that Starmer is “getting on with the job” but appeared to confirm that he is now considering his political future.
Jones recognised that Labour MPs were “asking the prime minister to consider different options in the future”.
Speaking to Sky News, Jones added: “He rightfully is listening to them. It would be wrong if he wasn’t listening to them.”
These remarks from a senior minister follow reports that his cabinet colleagues are split on Starmer’s future. According to reports overnight, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has called on Starmer to set out a timetable to step down ahead of a crunch cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.
The prime minster faced a series of resignations on Monday evening as calls for him to quit grew over the course of the day. Monday began with a make-or-break speech from the prime minister in which he vowed to defy his “doubters”. But the address failed to quell the burgeoning rebellion on Labour’s backbenches.
The resignations of Tom Rutland, Naushabah Khan, Sally Jameson and Joe Morris threw Starmer’s premiership into graver peril.
Rutland, a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was the first to issue a statement announcing his decision to resign. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder.
Rutland said that the prime minister “has lost authority not just within the parliamentary Labour Party but across the country and that he will not be able to regain it.”
He added: “That significantly impedes the ability of the government to deliver the change that people voted for at the general election – change that we must deliver.”
Morris and Jameson did not initially state that they had resigned their roles. However, the government moved quickly to announce their replacements on Monday evening.
Morris’ resignation was seen as especially significant. He is considered to be an ally of the health secretary, Wes Streeting, a likely leadership challenger. Another Streeting confidante, Jas Athwal – whose Ilford South constituency neighbours Streeting’s Ilford North seat – called for Starmer to resign on Monday afternoon.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Jones conceded that he was “sad” about the state of affairs.
He told Sky News: “I’m a bit sad, to be honest… because I’m sad that we’re in this situation in the first place.
“I’m sad about the election results last Thursday when we lost many brilliant colleagues across the country, some of whom had served their local communities for many decades.
“So I’m sad that my team, my party, has ended up with a poor set of results. And I’m sad that a number of colleagues yesterday, have felt the need to have this conversation in public as opposed to internally within the party.
“So I am a bit sad about that, to be honest, but I’m also optimistic about the future because we’ve only been in government now for less than 2 years.”
