LIVE: Fourth minister quits over Keir Starmer’s leadership

Heading into today’s Cabinet meeting it appeared that Sir Keir’s days in the hotseat were numbered.

And yet, eight hours later there is a growing sense that another day might pass without the PM resigning.

Wes Streeting – who interestingly sits facing Starmer at Cabinet – looked the most likely to mount a leadership, but this manoeuvre appears to have gone quiet for the time being.

Did Sir Keir put on a masterclass of undermining rivals this morning? Political editor James Tapsfield delves into the PM’s crafty political tactics:

Those backing the PM have gone public in the last few moments – and there are 112 of them.

This amounts to just under 30 per cent of Starmer’s MPs. Four ministers and dozens of backbenchers have called on Sir Keir to quit.

In their statement, the loyalists said: ‘Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

‘That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs. We must focus on that.

‘This is no time for a leadership contest.’

Not a single minister put their name to the statement.

Leadership hopeful Wes Streeting will hold talks with Sir Keir Starmer tomorrow morning, the Times reports.

The Health Secretary has emerged as a frontrunner to replace the PM, with a string of MPs believed to be getting ready to back him should he put his name forward.

In tomorrow’s crunch meeting, Streeting will ask Sir Keir how he plans to ‘get us out of this mess’.

You know things have died down when the focus shifts to Larry the Cat.

No 10’s chief rat catcher has been in post since 2011 and has purred his way through the epochs of six Prime Ministers.

The unflappable feline has been spotted loitering on the steps of 10 Downing Street in the last few moments, the most likely location for a potential resignation speech – should one happen in the next few days.

More from David Lammy, who came out firing in an interview outside Downing Street this evening.

The Deputy Prime Minister insisted that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage would be the biggest beneficiary of the Labour Party psychodrama.

He said: ‘Let’s get on with the business of running this country and government. That’s what I’ve been doing today. That’s what the Prime Minister’s been doing.

‘And I urge colleagues to step back and not benefit Farage and Reform.’

Long-time Starmer loyalist David Lammy has just told Sky News the Prime Minister has his ‘full support’.

He added that despite a wave of MPs calling on Sir Keir to resign, ‘no one has come forward in the last 24 hours’.

The former Foreign Secretary reminded his party that ‘no one has the numbers [to mount a leadership challenge]’ and urged anyone who does ‘to come forward’.

This firm backing of the PM has been a long time coming, with Lammy’s silence deafening last night as the walls appeared to cave in around Sir Keir.

There have been whispers that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood would become the highest profile Government figure to call on the Prime Minister to resign, perhaps as early as this evening.

It was first reported last night that Mahmood had urged Sir Keir to stand down, joining Yvette Cooper in a coalition of Labour big dogs calling for the boss’s head.

Well, the Home Sec’s spokesman has put paid to these rumours this evening – or at least confirmed that she will not be resigning from the Cabinet.

Instead, Mahmood is focussing on ‘cracking on with the job’, the spokesman said.

Amid the growing clamour calling for the Prime Minister to step down, it’s easy to forget that some MPs are stoically supporting Keir Starmer.

While a host of Labour big dogs remain conspicuous by their silence, more than 100 Labour MPs are understood to have signed a statement backing Sir Keir.

These include Michael Payne – yesterday promoted to the role of parliamentary private secretary following a wave of resignations – who insisted the PM is ‘[getting] on with governing’.

And preet Kaur Gill added that ‘voters did not elect us to turn inward and obsess over ourselves’.

Analysts have warned of a Truss-style debt crisis if Labour lurches to the Left today as markets pummelled Britain.

The UK’s borrowing costs surged to 28-year highs with traders taking fright at the prospect of Keir Starmer being replaced by Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner.

In more damaging fallout from the chaos, the Pound weakened against the US dollar and euro, while the blue-chip FTSE 100 dropped.

Britain faces being dragged to the Left with a rise in spending, taxation, the minimum wage and renationalisation if Keir Starmer is removed from power.

Higher public spending, higher taxes, a more generous minimum wage and yet more new rights for workers at the expense of employers are among ideas that have been floated by some of the challengers and their allies.

Even before the Prime Minister quits or is forced from No10, the markets have reacted with fear over who might replace him and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Ninety of Sir Keir Starmer’s own Labour MPs have now publicly called for his resignation, telling him to ‘get real’ and recognise ‘it’s over’.

While six ministerial aides have walked out.

Miatta Fahnbulleh became the first minister to quit. She is regarded as closely linked to Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband.

Ms Phillips and Ms Davies-Jones are seen as allies of Mr Streeting.

Health Minister Zubir Ahmed has resigned from Keir Starmer’s Government.

In his letter to the PM he said that it had been the ‘honour of his life’ to serve, but that due to a ‘lack of values-driven leadership at its centre’ he had lost his confidence in Sir Keir to lead.