Starmer faces fresh coup to oust him as Prime Minister: report
Prime Minister is facing a renewed coup from within his own party as he recently welcomed rebellious backbenchers back into the fold.
The i Paper reports that the discussions to remove Starmer come amid concerns about the party’s poll ratings and discontent that the government may break Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise income tax.
More than 100 Labour MPs joined the rebels in threatening to block welfare reforms being spearheaded by ministers earlier this year, over fears they would harm people claiming disability benefits.
Starmer faced a mini-revolt in September as figures in Labour raised concerns about the judgment of the Prime Minister, who lost his deputy-leader, Angela Rayner, and was forced to fire the US Ambassador Peter Mandelson in the space of a week.
Several backbenchers directly questioned Mandelson’s appointment on social media and Starmer’s perceived poor judgment in appointing him.
Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester who is widely tipped to run again for the party leadership, said Sir Keir had questions to answer.
“I wasn’t privy to the vetting process, so I don’t know what was known at the time, and I think people will want to question that now in the hours and days ahead.”
This week, his government was embarrassed by the news that it had inadvertently released an illegal immigrant and convicted sex offender from jail just months into his term.
Losing vote
Data from Ipsos in the UK’s Political Pulse survey, taken October 10-13, reveals that for the first time, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has a slight lead over Keir Starmer when Britons are asked their preferred choice for Prime Minister.
Farage holds a slight lead over Starmer as the preferred choice for Prime Minister, with 33% of respondents supporting Farage compared to Starmer’s 30%.
Britons are also now slightly more likely to say they would prefer Reform UK led by Nigel Farage to win the next UK General Election (39%) than the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer (36%).
By comparison, Starmer’s lead over Kemi Badenoch in terms of who would make a better Prime Minister has been reduced compared to last month. 27% say they would prefer Starmer compared to 22% who say Badenoch (+5 ppt Starmer lead, compared to +12 in September).
Andy Burnham (26%) also continues to lead Keir Starmer (17%) in terms of who the public think would make a better Prime Minister. But around two in five (43%) Britons say neither or think there would be no difference.
Looking more broadly, two in three (67%) continue to say that the country is heading in the wrong direction, while 16% say it is heading in the right direction (14% neither, 4% don’t know), giving a net rating of -51.
