Sharks are circling UK PM Keir Starmer, with his leadership vulnerable
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a Service of Remembrance to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day at The National Memorial Arboretum on August 15, 2025 in Alrewas, Staffordshire.
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U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is looking increasingly vulnerable this week amid mounting speculation that he could face a leadership challenge after the Autumn Budget later in November.
Economists expect Starmer’s right-hand in the Treasury, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, will be forced to break Labour Party manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on workers when she unveils her fiscal plans in the budget on Nov. 26.
Reeves finds herself in an unenviable position as she tries to fill a fiscal black hole caused by Labour spending pledges, U-turns on reform spending cuts and her own rules on limiting borrowing.
Raising taxes on working people is likely to upset not only voters, who have expressed disappointment with Starmer’s leadership since Labour’s landslide election win in July 2024, but also prominent members of the PM’s top team in the Cabinet.
The BBC reported Wednesday that there are a number of high-profile names — and Starmer allies — are being circulated as potential replacements for the PM if a leadership challenge is mounted, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Other names reported by the BBC include Ed Miliband, energy minister, and backbenchers including the former transport secretary Louise Haigh.
Mutiny afoot?
The man seen as the main contender when it comes to a potential challenge to Starmer’s leadership, Wes Streeting, denied a plot was afoot, telling Sky News Wednesday that he is not planning to try to oust the PM. He instead accused allies of the PM of briefing against him in what he said was “self-defeating and self-destructive behaviour.”
Britain’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting speaks during an event to launch “NHS Day of Action” on March 28, 2025 in Runcorn, England.
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When asked if he will launch a leadership challenge after the budget, Streeting told Sky’s ‘Mornings with Ridge and Frost’ program: “No,” saying overnight briefings on the matter were “totally self-defeating … not least because it’s not true.”
Streeting said while he hadn’t backed Starmer’s initial bid to lead the Labour Party, he had supported the PM “from the moment he was elected.”
In any case, the narrative around a potential leadership challenge is damaging for a prime minister who is seen as having performed well on a global stage — ingratiating himself with U.S. President Trump and fellow EU leaders, and achieving trade deals with the U.S., India and EU in the last year — but performing badly with voters at home.
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