Keir Starmer is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as prime minister, after overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy Burnham to become party leader.
Speaking for the government on Sunday, Peter Kyle, the business secretary, refused to comment on Starmer’s specific plans but said the prime minister was aware of the “political realities” and would do what was best for the country. “I don’t want to come on here and be delusional that there is no process, there are no forces at work which are challenging the prime minister as leader – that is clearly the case,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
“Keir Starmer expected to announce departure as PM on Monday after overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs.”
The prime minister and his allies had insisted for weeks, before the Makerfield byelection in which Burnham secured a return to Westminster, that they would fight a leadership challenge from Burnham, or anyone else. Downing Street reiterated this on Sunday, pointing to Starmer’s comments to reporters on Friday, after Burnham’s byelection win, in which the PM vowed that he would fight any challenge to his leadership.
Amid hopes on both sides of avoiding too much rancour and confusion, no cabinet ministers have publicly called for Starmer to go. Allies of Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, declined to comment on reports that she had privately urged the PM to step aside.
In the government, the widespread assumption has spread that Starmer will move on Monday. One source said: “I would expect him to do the right thing for the country, with some sort of timetable for departure, most likely around the autumn.”
While Kyle said he did not know “what the next few days will entail”, he presented Starmer as thinking very carefully about his future and how to avoid damaging the national interest. Kyle said he had spoken at length to Starmer on Friday. “He was very mindful of the interests of the country, and in that conversation he repeatedly said to me and asked my advice on what I believe the country wanted at this moment in different circumstances.”
Refusing to say what advice he had given, Kyle said of the Labour party: “We are a tight group of people, and we are now facing a period of political uncertainty, and we need to find a way to get through this that puts the country first. This is what we are trying to do.”
Kyle is a close friend of Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month and has pledged to challenge to become prime minister.