British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, fighting for his political survival after dozens of his MPs called for him to resign, is promising to press ahead with plans to reform the country, warning of chaos and instability if ousted.
Starmer, 63, has so far defied calls to quit from Labour lawmakers who blame him for heavy losses in local elections last week and say he has failed to deliver reforms since coming to power in a landslide 2024 election victory.
While almost a quarter of the Prime Minister's elected MPs have called for him to go and a handful of junior ministers have resigned in protest, potential rivals for his job have yet to trigger a formal leadership challenge.
It was the latest pledge from Starmer to press on with a premiership dogged by scandal and policy U-turns, and has left the leader and Labour rebels in a stalemate.
Support in the wider Labour Party has also started to ebb away. Jess Phillips, a well-known MP and women's rights campaigner, became one of four junior ministers to resign on Tuesday, joining more than 80 lawmakers who have publicly called on Starmer to set a timetable for leaving office.
In a nod to a surge in borrowing costs to their highest in nearly 30 years over fears of another bout of political instability in Britain, Starmer said the "past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families".
"The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered," Starmer told his cabinet on Tuesday, according to his Downing Street office. "The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet."
Later he said in a statement: "Britain stands at a pivotal moment: to press ahead with a plan to build a stronger, fairer country or turn back to the chaos and instability of the past."
"It's been 24 hours now and nobody has come forward to put themselves forward in the processes that exist in the party. No one seems to have the names to stand up against Keir Starmer, and for those who are suggesting that he should stand down, they should say which candidate would be better."
All eyes are on a clutch of senior party figures, such as health minister Wes Streeting, who has made little secret of his ambition to become PM one day, to see whether they would move to challenge Starmer directly.
Others MPs who are thought to want him to go, including interior minister Shabana Mahmood, either left without comment or did not leave via Downing Street, where reporters were gathered on Tuesday.
FUTURE UNCERTAIN
Despite the turmoil, Starmer will on Wednesday take part in the state opening of parliament - a grand ceremony led by King Charles III which is used by the government to set out its political priorities and legislative agenda for the year ahead.
"The British people expect the government to get on with the job of changing our country for the better. Cutting the cost of living, bringing down hospital waiting lists and keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world," Starmer said.
A package of over 35 bills and draft bills will focus on measures to improve the economy, strengthen national security and "reform the state to support a more active government that is on the side of British people", the government said.
After travelling to parliament and donning the Robe of State, Charles will read a speech written by Starmer's government setting out the planned new laws.
But the implementation of that speech remains as uncertain as Starmer's political future; if he were to be ousted, his successor would not be bound to follow the same plan.
Wednesday's ceremony will put Starmer's struggle for power back in public view. He is expected to meet Streeting ahead of the speech.
Then, under the gaze of television cameras and alongside leaders of rival parties, Starmer will walk in a procession of lawmakers from parliament's lower house to its upper house, where the King will then speak.
The Prime Minister will later deliver a speech in a parliamentary debate that is likely to be used by rivals to ridicule his position as a leader with badly damaged authority presenting an agenda that he may never get to deliver.
MUCH-PROMISED STABILITY EVAPORATES
It is a long way from when Keir Starmer first became Labour leader in 2020, inheriting the party after its worst national election showing since 1935 under his predecessor, veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.
He was then seen as a safe pair of hands able to drag Labour more towards the centre ground.
At the 2024 election, he won one of the largest majorities in modern British history for Labour with an offer of stability after years of chaos under the Conservatives, who oversaw five prime ministers in eight years.
Now, he is fighting for his political survival.
"I can't see how he gets through the day," one Labour MP told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
But it is generally harder for Labour MPs to remove a Prime Minister than the opposition Conservative Party.
While dozens of Labour MPs lawmakers might have expressed their dissatisfaction with Starmer, 81 of them need to rally behind one single candidate to trigger a contest.
Of those who have called for him to go, about half of them are on the left of the party, while just over a quarter are more centrist, according to a Reuters tally. That would suggest there is no one candidate who commands the numbers yet.
