Starmer Faces Resignation Talk as Labour Marks Troubled First Year in Power

One year after winning a 156-seat landslide, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is grappling with mounting doubts about his leadership following a string of policy reversals and unrest inside the governing Labour Party.

Sky News reported, citing two senior Labour MPs, that Starmer could be forced to resign within months if the party’s performance does not improve, especially in the May 2026 regional elections in Wales, Scotland and London. Separately, Labour peer Maurice Glasman told POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast that the prime minister has only six months to arrest the slide.

Labour officials say the government has delivered more than four million additional NHS appointments, unveiled a 10-year health plan and set up state-backed GB Energy. Yet Starmer’s authority has been dented by an internal rebellion over disability-benefit cuts, a welfare bill that needed last-minute concessions and an emotional Commons appearance by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, events that have fed criticism of repeated U-turns.

Outside Westminster, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Zarah Sultana are discussing the launch of a new hard-left party. Pollster Savanta estimates such a grouping could attract about 10 percent of the vote—enough to complicate Labour’s election calculus—while veteran analyst John Curtice questions whether the historic two-party dominance of Labour and the Conservatives can endure.

With local elections less than a year away and both internal rebels and potential rivals circling, Starmer must demonstrate clearer progress on his policy agenda to quell talk of an early departure and to stabilise Labour’s standing with voters.