10 Drowning Street? UK PM Keir Starmer labours on amid strong current

London: Prime Minister Keir Starmer defied calls to resign on Tuesday, telling his ministers he would get on with governing despite a "destabilising" 48 hours.

At a meeting of his cabinet, Starmer, in the top job for less than two years, repeated that, while he took responsibility for one of his Labour Party's worst election defeats, there had been no official move to trigger a leadership contest. Several loyal ministers expressed their support for him.

It was the latest pledge from Starmer to press on with a premiership dogged by scandal and policy U-turns since he won a large majority at a national election in 2024, and leaves the leader and Labour rebels in something of a stalemate.

Support in the wider Labour Party has also started to ebb away. Jess Phillips, a well-known Labour lawmaker and women's rights campaigner, became one of three junior ministers to resign on Tuesday, joining more than 80 lawmakers who have publicly called on Starmer to set a timetable for leaving office.

"The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered," Starmer told his cabinet.

"The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet, he added."

All eyes were on a clutch of senior party figures, such as health minister Wes Streeting who has made little secret of his ambition to become prime minister.