Sir Keir Starmer may sack Downing St staff after a briefing war over alleged leadership threats. Photo / Getty Images
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could sack Downing St staff after a briefing war erupted over alleged threats to his leadership.
No 10 sources insisted this week that the Prime Minister would fight any challenge amid claims an attempt to oust him would come after the Budget.
They accused Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of leadership manoeuvres.
Streeting, who denied the claims, criticised Downing St’s “toxic culture” and called for those who briefed against Cabinet ministers to be sacked.
After Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), the Prime Minister’s press secretary said those responsible would be “dealt with”.
Asked if Starmer was ready to sack them, she said: “I would point you to what he has said about this previously, which is that any attacks on Cabinet ministers are completely unacceptable and will always be dealt with.”
However, she was unable to give details of what action Starmer would take to root out the guilty parties.
The issue of Starmer’s leadership dominated PMQs. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch blamed Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney for the briefings, saying: “These attacks came from Number 10, no one else, his toxic Number 10.
“The person responsible for the culture in Number 10 is his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Does the Prime Minister have full confidence in him?”
In response, Starmer stopped short of giving his full backing. “Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are fully focused on delivering for the country,” he said. “I’ve never authorised attacks on Cabinet ministers.
“I’ve appointed them to their posts because they’re the best people to carry out their jobs.”
Starmer’s press secretary later clarified the Prime Minister had full confidence in McSweeney and his “entire top team”.
McSweeney has been a divisive figure among Labour MPs for some time. Credited with masterminding the campaign to oust Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, he replaced Sue Gray as Number 10 chief of staff earlier this year.
More recently, his critics claim he is behind several missteps by Downing St, including the fiasco surrounding the appointment and sacking of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador.
Number 10 sources named the Health Secretary in briefings, alleging he had leadership ambitions. They also claimed he could call for Starmer to resign after May’s local elections.
Streeting told BBC Breakfast: “I’m not challenging the Prime Minister, I’m not standing against him, I’m not doing any of the things some silly briefers said overnight.
“We’ve seen this before against other Cabinet colleagues. I think our deputy leader, Lucy Powell, was absolutely right about that toxic culture that needs to change.”
Asked if the Prime Minister should sack those responsible for the briefings, Streeting said: “Yes. But he’s got to find them first. And I wouldn’t expect him to waste loads of time on this.”
In an apparent attempt by Downing St figures to shore up the Prime Minister’s position, the would-be plotters were told that an attempted coup could spook the markets.
Starmer’s allies appear concerned that a leadership challenge could be launched as soon as the Budget on November 26, when Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise income tax appears set to be broken.
Allies of Starmer have accused Streeting, a Blairite, of seeking to build support from the party’s Left in the event of a leadership challenge.
The Health Secretary has been outspoken in recent weeks in support of Zohran Mamdani, New York’s Left-wing mayor-elect, and defended Sir Sadiq Khan against Donald Trump.
Asked about the briefing war, Streeting said the political turmoil showed that Starmer had people around him “who do not follow his model and style of leadership”.
He compared the briefings to The Celebrity Traitors, calling it “the worst attack on a Faithful I’ve seen since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final”.
A Government source said that Number 10 had “gone into full bunker mode” and were “turning on their most loyal Cabinet members for absolutely no reason” after the briefing operation.
“Unfortunately, there is a pattern of Keir’s team briefing against his own people – they did it to Angela [Rayner], Lisa [Nandy], Lucy [Powell], now it’s Wes’s turn. A circular firing squad won’t help the government out of the hole we’re in.”
But one minister told the Daily Telegraph that Streeting was “actively plotting by phoning ministers and backbenchers”.
They said: “There is all sorts of talk going on, about how he could mount a leadership challenge, or whether he could encourage someone else to challenge Keir and create space for them to run.”
A former member of the Prime Minister’s inner circle condemned the decision to lean in hard on the briefings as a “catastrophic error of judgment”.
They told the Telegraph: “I know of no one outside Number 10 who thinks this was a good idea.”
But one government source close to Starmer’s operation said they thought the strategy of a “warning shot” had succeeded.
“Wes showed his hand too early and this is what happened,” the source said. “He was on the morning round, saying he supports the PM.”
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader and current Net Zero Secretary, was also mentioned in some reports as being another Cabinet minister who possibly had leadership ambitions.
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