Sir Keir Starmer could announce as soon as Monday that he is stepping down as Prime Minister following Andy Burnham’s emphatic win in the Makerfield by-election, according to claims made last night.
The Prime Minister is understood to have been weighing his future after discussions with Cabinet ministers, senior No 10 aides, union figures and influential Labour donors, with some suggesting he has concluded that remaining in post may no longer be sustainable.
Sources close to the situation stressed that Sir Keir has not yet reached a final decision. He is spending the weekend at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country residence, where he is said to be speaking with his wife, Victoria, about his next move.
Even so, senior Labour figures told The Observer they expected the Prime Minister to make his position clear either tomorrow or at some point later in the week.
Downing Street last night sought to play down suggestions of an imminent resignation, saying the situation remained as it was on Friday, when Sir Keir insisted he would continue to fight and would not walk away from a challenge. Such a challenge is now expected from Mr Burnham, with former Health Secretary Wes Streeting also seen as a potential contender.
Speaking on Friday, Sir Keir said: “If there is a contest, yes, I will run. I have said repeatedly I am not going to walk away from that.”
One Labour peer suggested the Prime Minister would be unlikely to simply “walk away” from Downing Street and leave behind a political vacuum. Instead, the peer said, he would seek to manage any departure through “a slow march as a matter of duty and dignity”.
Mr Burnham, who comfortably defeated Reform UK in last week’s by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency, is due to be sworn in as an MP tomorrow.
Senior Labour figures told The Observer that they believed a clear statement could come from the PM as early as Monday
Sir Keir is discussing his future this weekend with his wife Victoria at the Prime Minister’s country retreat Chequers
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Sir Keir is under pressure to make his intentions clear before Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. Another Labour grandee said: ‘He’s come up hard against the reality that the support isn’t there.
‘The truth is everyone knows this is no longer a tenable proposition. There’s a sadness about it all but sometimes there’s just an inevitability in politics.’
A Cabinet minister said Sir Keir was ‘calmly going through things’ after a series of conversations with his closest allies over recent days.
‘He just wants to do what’s right for the country and, having spoken to the people he wants, he is now spending quality time with his most important adviser – Vic.’ Another ally said Lady Starmer now carried more weight than any of his legion of close advisers and she was one of the only people he now listened to.
Up to recently, said the Starmer loyalist, she had been firmly of the view that the PM should stick it out and defy his critics. He said: ‘Vic has been of the view that ‘you need to keep on going’.’
Another insider made clear that her influence over her husband was paramount. ‘Quite simply, she is his rock,’ he said.
It was apparently Lady Starmer who stopped Sir Keir from throwing in the towel after Labour’s calamitous results in May’s local elections when some Cabinet colleagues told him the game was up.
But then as one No 10 source said: ‘Vic is very important in talking stuff through with Keir.’
That’s despite Downing Street previously insisting that Lady Starmer has no say in the machinery of government. And she has maintained a low profile in Downing Street – especially shortly after the 2024 general election, when she drew fierce criticism (as did her husband) over party donors paying for her outfits.
The couple have also strongly defended their family’s privacy, particularly when it has involved their son and daughter who are now 18 and 15.
No 10 has previously insisted that Lady Starmer, who works as an occupational therapist in the NHS, was not involved with the Government’s political affairs. But insiders are suggesting that this situation has understandably changed and she is now playing a highly political role.
According to one source, this is the inevitable outcome of Sir Keir’s operation inside No 10 being ‘hollowed out’.
Lady Starmer is often by the PM’s side on the big state occasions. Last week, she flew to the G7 world leaders summit in Evian, France, alongside Sir Keir.
Last night a Tory source said: ‘The only one Sir Keir has left in his corner is his wife. If she had any sense she’d put him out of his misery and tell him to pack it in.’
