UK Cabinet minister denies plotting to oust embattled leader Starmer

LONDON (AP) — A senior member of the British government on Wednesday denied he’s plotting to oust Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in a sign of deep anxiety in the Labour Party over its dire poll ratings less than 18 months after a landslide election victory.

British media was awash in speculation after Starmer’s office preemptively told news outlets that Starmer would fight any challenge to his leadership. Unnamed aides pointed to Health Secretary Wes Streeting as a potential challenger.

What looked like an attempt to strengthen Starmer’s authority backfired. The reports set of jitters verging on panic among Labour lawmakers, who fear the party is heading for a big defeat at the next election.

Streeting said talk of a leadership challenge was “self-defeating and self-destructive.”

“It’s totally self-defeating briefing, not least because it’s not true,” he told Sky News. He said “whoever’s been briefing this has been watching too much ‘Celebrity Traitors’,” referring to the hit reality TV show that pits faithful members of a group against conniving enemies within.

The 42-year-old health secretary is one of the government’s most effective communicators and is widely tipped as a future party leader.

In the House of Commons, Starmer rejected a claim by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch that there is “a toxic culture in Downing Street,” with the government embroiled in “civil war.”

“This is a united team,” Starmer said, to guffaws from opposition lawmakers. He said Streeting is “doing a great job, as is the whole of my Cabinet.”

Starmer’s press secretary said the prime minister condemned the briefing against Streeting and “would never authorize attacks on any Cabinet minister.” She said Starmer is determined to stay in his job and fight the next election as prime minister.

That election doesn’t have to be held until 2029, and a challenge this early in a government’s five-year term would be highly unusual. But Labour lawmakers are gloomy about opinion polls that consistently put Labour well behind the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage – though ahead of the main opposition Conservative Party, which faces crises of its own.

They are nervous about the annual budget statement on Nov. 26, which is expected to include income tax hikes, breaking an election promise and likely angering voters.

Since being elected in July 2024, Starmer’s government has struggled to deliver on its pledges to get the economy growing, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. Inflation remains stubbornly high, unemployment has risen and the economic outlook is subdued.

Latest figures released Tuesday showed that the jobless rate has gone up to 5% in the three months to September from 4.8% in the previous three months — the highest since 2016 once the COVID-19 pandemic years were factored out.

Under Labour Party rules, a lawmaker can mount a leadership challenge if they have the support of 20% of their colleagues, a threshold that currently stands at 81 members of Parliament.

Britain’s parliamentary political system allows a governing party to change prime minister without the need for an early election, though unelected prime ministers face pressure to demonstrate their legitimacy by going to voters.

The U.K. had three Conservative prime ministers – Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – between the last two elections in December 2019 and July 2024.

Alastair Campbell, who was Downing Street director of communications under former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, said the outbreak of infighting would only hurt the government.

“As cack-handed, stupid moves go, this one was right at the top of the charts,” he told the BBC.