POLITICO
Britain’s embattled prime minister is still in office. No one knows how long that will last.
King Charles heads to Parliament Wednesday to lay out Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda for the new session. After that all bets are off.
“Wednesday is a firebreak,” said one Labour official, granted anonymity like others quoted in this piece to speak frankly. “People will see that it’s disrespectful to [Buckingham] Palace — there will be a sense of duty around the monarchy that will kick in for some people.”
A government official echoed the same point, noting: “You can’t make a fool of the king, can you?”
The sudden pause in intra-party hostilities comes after a whipsaw day in Westminster politics. Early Tuesday, the prime minister faced down his critics at a Cabinet meeting, refusing to allow discussion of his own leadership and declining a request by Health Secretary Wes Streeting — a key potential challenger — to meet in private immediately afterwards.
Streeting is instead due to meet Starmer on Wednesday morning to ask the prime minister how he plans to get the party out of its mess. An ally of Streeting said the health secretary would not make a statement after the meeting that might distract from the monarch.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was urging colleagues Tuesday night to “step back, take a breath, remember that we have the king’s speech.” No wonder. People familiar with the matter told POLITICO that the king’s team had made clear to Starmer’s officials the importance of protecting Charles from any impression that he is being used for political ends in the Labour leadership fight.
Charles, in words written by Starmer’s government, is due to announce more than 35 planned or draft bills including an immigration crackdown, health reform, digital ID, closer EU alignment and energy infrastructure. That whole agenda could all soon be junked by a different prime minister.
Allies of Streeting, by contrast, argue that waiting months for Burnham’s return would render Starmer a lame duck and squander Labour’s chances to begin real change before an expected election in 2029.
Because both Streeting and Rayner have let it be known they do not want to move first — and Rayner is happy to wait longer — the timing appears to be in Streeting’s hands. A senior official in one rival camp taunted Streeting: “Wes bottles it more than Budweiser.”
One government official aligned with the PM said on Tuesday morning that Streeting needed to act fast or risk looking like a “busted flush.”
“Wes is using a lot of his ammo,” this person said. “A lot of his good people have gone already.”
Meanwhile, Burnham’s return is riddled with uncertainty. He needs to be approved by Labour’s ruling body, which blocked him from standing for parliament in January, and then win a by-election against the right-wing Reform UK or the Green Party.
Burnham’s allies have said privately for days that there is a plan for a specific Labour MP to resign and create a by-election in which he could run. But the MP’s name has still not been publicly revealed and no one has yet resigned.
One person who has talked to several camps added: “They’ve alighted on getting the prime minister out, but not aligned on a candidate.”
Downing Street has banked on this disarray to keep Starmer in office, and so far it is working. Lammy said outside No. 10: “No one seems to have the names to stand up against Keir Starmer.”
No. 10 has also banked on the economic fallout from Iran war — the focus of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting — to keep Starmer in office. The cost of government borrowing surged on Tuesday as speculation about the PM’s future mounted.
Even on that topic, there was light dissent at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Wes said something about how promising to lead people through the Iran crisis isn’t enough, but it wasn’t a challenge,” according to one person briefed on discussions. A Cabinet minister added that Streeting “made suggestions on how we lead the country through the Iran challenges,” though insisted that it was constructive.
Another person briefed on the meeting said there were raised eyebrows and shared glances while Streeting was speaking.
The wartime context leads some to look in unlikely places. Defence Minister Al Carns is looking increasingly likely to go over the top, his allies say, despite only entering parliament in 2024 — but only if someone else challenges first.
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