Zubir Ahmed became the fourth minister to quit on Tuesday, resigning in protest at Keir Starmer’s leadership and calling on the prime minister to step aside. The move landed hours after Starmer told cabinet he would not quit, sharpening a party fight that is now spilling from private warning signs into public rebellion.
The resignation gives fresh fuel to a day already defined by Labour’s internal split. Pippa Crerar said in a post that Ahmed, the health minister and a close ally of Wes Streeting, had quit calling for Starmer to step aside. His departure came as more than 100 Labour MPs signed a letter saying there was no time for a leadership contest, with Jessica Elgot writing that last week’s “devastatingly tough” election results showed the party had a hard job ahead to win back trust and needed to start working together today.
That statement was organised by a group of backbenchers, many from the 2024 intake, and it was signed by 103 backbenchers and PPSs. The message was blunt: “no time for a leadership contest,” Elgot wrote, and the party should focus on delivering the change the country needs. But the show of unity sat alongside a growing countercurrent inside Labour, with a LabourList tally saying 88 Labour MPs had said the prime minister should go.
The numbers matter because they show a party that is not simply debating strategy after an election setback; it is splitting over whether the current leader can carry the mandate any further. Starmer’s refusal to resign on Tuesday stopped the argument from ending there. Instead, it turned the question into a test of discipline, with ministers, backbenchers and loyalists all trying to define what happens next.
Marie Rimmer added to that line of resistance when she rejected speculation that she would stand down for Andy Burnham or anyone else. “Recent speculation regarding my parliamentary constituency seat is completely unfounded,” she said. “I am not planning to stand down for him or for anybody else.” Rimmer said she was selected by her constituency Labour party and elected by the people of St Helens South and Whiston to represent them in parliament, and that she intended to honour that mandate.
The backdrop is the 2024 general election campaign, when Andy Burnham and Rimmer were campaigning in Altrincham, but the present fight is over something far more immediate: whether Labour closes ranks behind Starmer or keeps drifting toward an open challenge. For now, the answer is that the prime minister is still in post, but the pressure around him has become impossible to ignore.
