Beleaguered British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will attempt a reset on Monday (May 11, 2026), as he faces a growing threat to his leadership following disastrous local and regional polls.

In a speech, his office said he will acknowledge that “incremental change won’t cut it” with an increasingly disgruntled public, promising “a bigger response” in areas such as economic growth, closer European ties and energy.

On Sunday (May 10, 2026), his Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said a leadership contest was not the answer as Labour licks its wounds from last week’s election drubbing.

Mr. Starmer himself signalled that he hoped to stay in power until 2034.

But several Labour lawmakers made it clear they believed it was time for him to go.

Former junior minister Catherine West announced that if a Cabinet Minister did not challenge Mr. Starmer by Monday (May 11, 2026), she would try to kickstart a leadership contest herself — a move that could open the door to others.

Such a move would also likely spark a damaging bout of infighting as MPs from the left and right of the party battled to position their preferred candidate or shore up Mr. Starmer.

‘Lost the country’

Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs — 20% of the party in parliament — to trigger a contest.

Another lawmaker, former loyalist Josh Simons, urged Mr. Starmer to step down, saying he had “lost the country”.

A third, veteran MP Clive Betts, said there had “to be a way to actually bring in a new leader in a proper and constructive manner in the next few months”.

The election results were particularly tough for Labour in Wales, where they lost control of the devolved government for the first time since the parliament in Cardiff was established 27 years ago.

Elsewhere, they lost nearly 1,500 local council seats while the anti-immigration Reform U.K. party surged from less than 100 to over 1,400 seats under Brexit figurehead leader Nigel Farage.

In Scotland, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) John Swinney called for another independence referendum to shield the nation from a future Reform government.

The polls came less than two years after Mr. Starmer swept to power in a landslide general election victory, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.

Mr. Starmer, 63, has swerved from one policy misstep to another since then, and is engulfed in a scandal over the appointment — and sacking — of Peter Mandelson as U.K. Ambassador to Washington, after revelations about the envoy’s ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Prime Minister has failed to spur economic growth as British citizens continue to feel the effects of a years-long cost-of-living pinch, but has been praised for resisting U.S. President Donald Trump over Iran.

‘Decade of renewal’

Before last Thursday’s (May 7, 2026) polls, the British press had been awash with rumours that former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Health Minister Wes Streeting could try to oust Mr. Starmer afterwards.

But neither is universally popular within Labour and would need to be nominated by a high threshold of the party’s MPs to fire the starting gun on a leadership contest.

Ms. Rayner on Sunday (May 10, 2026) stopped short of calling for Mr. Starmer to quit but said the current strategy “isn’t working and it needs to change”.

“This may be our last chance… The prime minister must now meet the moment and set out the change our country needs,” she wrote on X.

Another much-touted possible contender, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, is currently unable to challenge as he does not have a seat in parliament.

The lack of consensus has led to speculation that there could be a move behind a so-called unity candidate like Defence Secretary John Healey or Armed Forces minister Al Carns.

The absence of an obvious successor means Mr. Starmer could still hold on.

There has also been reluctance in the party to replace him after the Conservatives went through three prime ministers in four months in 2022.

Mr. Starmer himself has repeatedly resolved to stay put.

Questioned over whether he would lead Labour at the next election, expected in 2029 at the latest, and serve a full term of up to five years, he told the Sunday Mirror: “Yes, I will.”

“I’ve always said it’s a decade of national renewal,” he added.

Published – May 11, 2026 08:45 am IST

London:

Britain’s ruling Conservative party is expected to suffer heavy losses in crunch local elections this week that are likely to increase pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The polls are the last major electoral test before a general election that Sunak’s party, in power since 2010, seems destined to lose to the Labour opposition.

Sunak has said he wants to hold the nationwide vote in the second half of the year, but bruising defeats in Thursday’s votes could force his hand earlier.

“These elections form a vital examination for the Sunak premiership — road-testing its claim that the plan is working and the degree to which voters still lend that notion any degree of credibility,” political scientist Richard Carr told AFP.

Incumbent governments tend to suffer losses in local contests and the Conservatives are forecast by pollsters to lose about half of the council seats they are defending.

Sunak’s immediate political future is said to rest on whether two high-profile Tory regional mayors get re-elected in the West Midlands and Tees Valley areas of central and northeast England.

Wins for the Conservative mayors, Andy Street and Ben Houchen, would boost hopes among Tory MPs that Sunak can turn around their party’s fortunes in time for the general election.

But speculation is rife in the UK parliament that a bad showing could lead some restive Conservative lawmakers to try to replace Sunak before the nationwide poll.

“If Andy Street and Ben Houchen both lose, any idea that Sunak can carry on is surely done,” said Carr, a politics lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.

“Whether that means he rolls the dice on a general election or gets toppled remains to be seen.”

Factional infighting has plagued the Tories in recent years, serving up five prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit vote, including three in four months from July to October 2022.

A group of restive Conservative MPs have drawn up a “policy blitz” for a potential successor to Sunak in the event of massive losses this week, British media have reported.

Sunak To Be Replaced?

Some observers say it would be madness for the Conservatives to topple another leader when Sunak has provided some stability since succeeding Liz Truss in October 2022.

Others say the party’s credibility is already shot so why not try one last desperate throw of the dice to try to stop a predicted Labour landslide.

Some 52 MPs would need to submit letters of no confidence in Sunak to trigger an internal party vote to replace him — a tall ask.

“I still expect Sunak will lead the Conservatives into the general election,” Richard Hayton, a politics professor at Leeds University, told AFP.

“But some MPs may seek to move against him, which will further damage his standing with the general public.”

Sunak, 43, was an internal Tory appointment following Truss’s disastrous 49 days premiership in which her unfunded tax cuts caused market turmoil and sank the pound.

Despite numerous leadership resets under Sunak, the Tories have continued to trail Labour, led by Keir Starmer, by double digits in most opinion polls.

An Ipsos poll earlier this month put Sunak’s satisfaction rating at a joint all-time low of minus 59 percent.

More than 2,500 councillors are standing in England on Thursday, as well as London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan who is seeking a record third term in office.

Most of the council seats up for re-election were last contested in 2021, when ex-Tory premier Boris Johnson was popular as he rolled out Covid-19 vaccines.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)