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  "path": "/2026/05/09/starmer-refusing-quit-even-top-cabinet-members-wont-publicly-back-28297271/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-09T08:25:05.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "Politics",
    "Andy Burnham",
    "Downing Street",
    "Local Elections",
    "Shabana Mahmood",
    "Sir Keir Starmer",
    "Wes Streeting",
    "Keir Starmer",
    "Number 10",
    "local election",
    "Ed Miliband",
    "here",
    "Birmingham",
    "Lisa Nandy",
    "Yvette Cooper",
    "and Sunderland",
    "check our news page",
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  ],
  "textContent": "Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is going nowhere (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)\n\nSir Keir Starmer is under renewed pressure to quit Number 10 as some of his most senior Cabinet Ministers have refused to publicly back him.\n\nThe Prime Minister is facing a rebellion from a number of Labour MPs in the wake of disastrous local election results which saw the party lose more than 1,400 council seats.\n\nA coordinated effort was underway last night to get Sir Keir’s Cabinet to issue supportive messages for him, but four Labour big beasts declined to say they had his back.\n\nFormer leader Ed Miliband, who reportedly told the Prime Minister to set out a departure for his resignation, issued what has been described as a ‘non-endorsement’.\n\nThe Energy Secretary branded the Labour wipe-out ‘devastating’, saying: ‘Voters are making clear their anger at a broken economic and political status quo.’\n\nEd Miliband is seen as a kingmaker in a future Labour leadership contest (Picture: Thomas Krych/Anadolu via Getty Images)\n\n##  Want to understand politics better?\n\nMetro's senior politics reporter Craig Munro breaks down political chaos into easy to follow insight, in **Metro** 's politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.\n\nMr Miliband also demanded the government ‘must go further in delivering the mandate for change that Labour won in 2024 – and show how we will answer the call for change in our country’.\n\nHome Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the results – which included Labour being beaten in her home city of Birmingham – were ‘a verdict on us not them.’\n\nWithout saying she supported the Sir Keir, she added: ‘The PM has rightly said we must do better. It is a privilege to serve the British people and we must live up to it.’\n\nCabinet Member Lisa Nandy also declined to row in behind the PM, only saying ‘we must rise to meet this moment’.\n\nForeign Secretary Yvette Cooper called for ‘serious, calm-headed reflection, because following these results’, adding: ‘We must listen and respond, but do so in a steady, thoughtful and reflective way.’\n\nLabour lost hundreds of English council seats to Reform UK on Thursday and saw the collapse of stronghold councils including Tameside, Blackburn, Gateshead and Sunderland.\n\nThe party was almost wiped out in Wales, where they lost control of the Senedd for the first time and leader Baroness Morgan lost her seat.\n\nWes Streeting said he still supports the Prime Minister but made a veiled leadership pitch after the results (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)\n\nThe verdict from voters has led to a fever pitch of speculation about whether a challenge will come to Sir Keir’s position as Labour leader.\n\nHealth Secretary Wes Streeting, who reportedly already has enough MPs lined up to launch a coup, issued a coded leadership pitch this morning, saying Labour had ‘bucked the trend’ in his area of Redbridge.\n\nAllies of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, have led calls for Sir Keir to leave Downing Street.\n\nLouise Haigh, his former transport secretary, said Sir Keir could not lead the party into the next election unless he delivered ‘significant and urgent change’.\n\nDespite this her boss remained defaint, saying he is ‘not going to walk away’.\n\nHe vowed: ‘Days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised.’\n\n## Who has called on Sir Keir Starmer to resign?\n\nA chorus of backbench MPs have demanded the Prime Minsiter set out a timetable for his departure from Number 10.\n\nMany of these came from left wing factions of the party who were allies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nIan Lavery, a former party chairman, said Labour faced ‘utter annihilation’ and warned that Sir Keir would face a leadership coup if he did not agree to stand aside.\n\nRichard Burgon, a central figure within the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) said the ‘defeat has Keir Starmer’s name written all over it.’\n\nClive Betts MP is not a usual leadership critic but joined calls for Sir Keir to stand down this morning (Picture: Ryan Browne/Shutterstock)\n\nHe added: ‘The party should now work towards a timetable for an orderly transition to a new leader by the end of this year.’\n\nHowever other senior Labour MPs have also aimed their fire at the PM.\n\nClive Betts, one of party’s longest serving MPs, said this morning that ‘people have made their mind up’ about Sir Keir and hoped that he recognises leaving Number 10 would be ‘for the good of the country’.\n\nCalls for his resignation have also come from workers Unions closely aligned with the Labour party.\n\nAndrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, Britain’s largest union and one of Labour’s biggest financial backers, warned that the party faced ‘oblivion’ unless Sir Keir stepped down.\n\nShe called for a change to ‘not just the leader but the entire approach’.\n\nSharon Graham, the boss of Unite the Union, said Sir Keir faced a choice to ‘change or die’.\n\nShe fears the local election drubbing ‘could be the beginning of the end for the party itself’.\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,** check our news page.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "Starmer refusing to quit even as top cabinet members won’t publicly back him"
}