British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tells Cabinet he will not resign

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushed back against over 70 MPs in his party, resisting calls to step down after the Labour Party lost big in council elections in England and assembly elections in Scotland and Wales last week.

“The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered,” the Prime Minister said at a Tuesday (May 12, 2026) morning Cabinet meeting, as per No. 10 Downing Street.

“The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet,” he added.

A number of MPs publicly asked Mr. Starmer to resign over the course of Monday (May 11, 2026), after the Prime Minister delivered a speech in the morning, viewed by some in Labour as his final attempt to salvage his premiership. Several senior officials and one junior minister had resigned in connection with Mr. Starmer’s leadership. 

Key ministers — Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Defence Secretary John Healey, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Foreign Yvette Cooper reportedly asked Mr. Starmer to agree to an orderly exit and and leadership transition. As per party rules, 20% of the party’ MPs- or 81 at MPs at present — must provide in writing their support to replace the leader. However, Mr Starmer’s opponents have not coalesced around a replacement for him.

Among those considered challengers to Mr. Starmer are former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Mr. Starmer has argued that changing the leader would cause chaos, referring to the multiple changes in No. 10 during the fourteen years of Tory rule, which saw five Prime Ministers. Some of Mr. Starmer’s supporters echoed this view on Tuesday.

“This is not a game,” says Housing Secretary Steve Reed, adding that the instability had consequences for people’s lives.

“We must unite behind the Prime Minister,” Mr. Reed wrote on X.

Mr. Starmer had led Labour in a landslide victory in the July 2024 general election. The Prime Minister has argued that more time is required to see the changes that voters asked for in the last general election, citing declining child poverty, lower immigration numbers and shorter waitlists for medical appointments via the free and universal National Health Service (NHS).