British Prime Minister Keir Starmer distanced himself yesterday from a briefing by unnamed allies that he would fight any leadership bid, throwing his support behind his health minister Wes Streeting who had been named as a challenger.
After the briefing to selected media outlets late on Tuesday raised questions about the prime minister’s authority, Starmer, whose poll ratings have sunk since an election win in July 2024, took to parliament to try to set the record straight, saying he “never authorised attacks” on his ministers.
He was referring to a briefing by “his allies” in which they said the prime minister would fight any challenge to his leadership, with Streeting and interior minister Shabana Mahmood named as possible candidates to replace him.
“Any attack on any member of my cabinet is completely unacceptable,” he told parliament during the weekly prime minister’s questions session.
“I’ve never authorised attacks on cabinet members. I appointed them to their posts because they’re the best people to carry out their jobs ... This is a united team and we are delivering together,” he said.
He also defended his chief adviser, Morgan McSweeney, who the leader of the opposition Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, named when describing Starmer’s Downing Street operation as “toxic”.
His political spokesperson described the briefing and resulting reports as “frustrating distractions from the work that the government is doing”.
Earlier, Streeting was forced to deny that he was plotting to bring down Starmer after the budget on November 26 when the government is expected to break one of its main election pledges to increase income taxes for the first time since the 1970s.
“That briefing is categorically untrue,” Streeting told BBC Radio.
Doing the early media round of talking to broadcasters, Streeting said the briefings of a challenge were self defeating because they gave the impression Starmer was fighting for his job when he was instead focused on fighting to improve Britain.
“I’m not going to demand the prime minister’s resignation,” he told Sky News. “I support the prime minister. I have done since he was elected leader of the Labour Party.”
British government bond prices fell early yesterday and underperformed against US and German bonds, possibly hinting at investor unease over Starmer’s prospects. The pound fell by around a third of a cent against the US dollar.
Market strategists said investors were concerned that if Starmer was no longer prime minister it could potentially lead to a left-leaning candidate taking over and raising government borrowing.
Much of Labour’s unpopularity has stemmed from tax rises and failed attempts at cutting welfare spending, showing the potential for the budget to be the next flashpoint.
Two Labour legislators expressed exasperation at the briefing, saying it underlined what they said was a poorly functioning team around Starmer in Downing Street.
One said on condition of anonymity that it felt “very end of days”.
Opinion polls suggest Starmer is one of the most unpopular prime ministers of all time, and his party has trailed Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party for months.
Starmer said he supported a strong and independent BBC but the public broadcaster must get its “house in order” after US President Donald Trump threatened to sue over its editing of one of his speeches.
The British Broadcasting Corporation has been plunged into its biggest crisis in decades after its director general and head of news quit following criticism about its standards and accusations of bias, including over the Trump speech.
Starmer, who has built a solid relationship with Trump, was asked in parliament if he would tell the US president to drop his threat of a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC, which is funded by a compulsory levy on British TV-watching households.
Trump’s action could result in the BBC having to use money paid by TV viewers to compensate the US president, a move that would compound the crisis at the broadcaster and provide more ammunition to its critics.
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