Just months after ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule with a historic 2024 general election victory, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer finds himself locked in a desperate battle to retain his job, as internal party unrest triggered by disastrous local election results paves the way for a potential leadership challenge from his former deputy, Angela Rayner.
The crisis erupted last week when Labour suffered catastrophic losses across regional and local polls. Voter backlash stripped the party of its decades-long control of the devolved Welsh Parliament for the first time in history, while it failed to close the gap with the pro-independence Scottish National Party at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Far-right Reform UK and left-wing Green Party made massive gains at Labour’s expense, reflecting widespread public discontent with Starmer’s performance over his 22 months in office. To date, four junior government ministers have resigned, more than 80 Labour members of Parliament have publicly called for his departure, and yet Starmer has remained defiant, vowing to hold onto power despite the growing mutiny within his own party. “I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will,” he stated during a defiant appearance earlier this week.
A major new development upended the crisis on Thursday, when Rayner announced that UK tax authority HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had cleared her of allegations of deliberate wrongdoing connected to a past tax affair. The 46-year-old left-wing working-class champion was forced to step down from her posts as deputy prime minister and housing secretary in September over an underpayment of property duty on a southern England flat purchase, which also found her in breach of the ministerial code. On Thursday, she confirmed that HMRC had exonerated her of claims she intentionally sought to evade tax, after she settled £40,000 ($54,000) in outstanding tax obligations. “I welcome HMRC’s conclusion, which has cleared me of any wrongdoing,” Rayner said in an official statement. “I set out to pay the correct amount of tax. I took reasonable care and acted in good faith, based on the expert advice I received, and HMRC has accepted this.”
The clearance removes a major barrier to Rayner entering a leadership contest, prompting widespread speculation that she could soon throw her hat into the ring. While she has stopped short of directly calling for Starmer’s resignation and told media she would not be the one to trigger a leadership race, she told *The Guardian* that she would step into “whatever role I can” to deliver the change party members and voters demand. Earlier this week, she issued a blunt assessment of Labour’s electoral collapse, writing “What we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change.”
Beyond Rayner, other potential challengers are also positioning for a run. Multiple UK media outlets reported Thursday that Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a 43-year-old figure popular with Labour’s centrist and right-wing factions, was preparing to resign imminently to launch a leadership bid. Streeting is unpopular with the party’s left-wing base, which broadly favors Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham for the top job. However, Burnham is currently ineligible to run, as he does not hold a seat in the Westminster Parliament.
Under Labour Party rules, any candidate seeking to challenge Starmer must secure the backing of 81 Labour MPs – equal to 20% of the party’s parliamentary cohort – to trigger a formal leadership contest. With more than 80 MPs already having called for Starmer to step down, the threshold is within reach for a coordinated challenge, leaving Britain’s government facing a period of unprecedented political instability just six months into its first term after ousting the Conservatives.