Cabinet split as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood among ministers calling for Starmer to resign

Labour MP says now is not the time for a 'revolving door of leaders' While Keir Starmer is facing increasing calls to resign, we've also heard from Labour MPs speaking out in defence of the prime minister. Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven MP Chris Ward says "this is not the time to divide the party or ignore the national interest". He says last week's elections results were "bitterly disappointing" but the "very worst response would be to plunge the party into a divisive leadership contest". Dover and Deal MP Mike Tapp agrees that the "country needs stability, not another revolving door of leaders". "At a time of global instability, the responsible thing to do is unite behind the Prime Minister and focus on delivering for Britain." Angela Eagle, MP for Wallasey, says, two days before the King's speech, which sets out the government's future legislative plans, "is not the time for this sort of destabilisation". The prime minister might have to respond to today's developments Jack Fenwick Political correspondent In his speech today, the prime minister outlined policy areas, like nationalising British Steel, closer ties with the EU, and more apprenticeships. This was supposed to be a moment to reset his premiership to try to stop the number of Labour MPs calling for his resignation growing. That hasn’t worked. That number has increased fairly significantly today to just over one in eight Labour MPs, though there are many who are not speaking. Right now the pressure on the prime minister feels even greater than it was this morning, and if the number of MPs continues to go up and we get more resignations from government aides, then it feels like the prime minister will have to come out and respond to this. Starmer now faces pressure to resign from two Labour fronts Iain Watson Political correspondent The rumours of resignations came this afternoon. I was told they wouldn’t be from the Burnham camp. Now that they have begun, Keir Starmer faces pressure on two fronts. Already pressed for a timetable for his resignation from left and centre-left supporters of Andy Burnham, he now has calls for him to go from the right of the party - and so far three resignations of ministerial aides. These are from people close to the health secretary Wes Streeting (and in some cases home secretary Shabana Mahmood.) But not all his detractors agree on the timetable for him to go. The Burnham backers want enough time for their pick to find a seat, fight a by-election and return to Westminster. Some close to Streeting want a swift timetable that would exclude Burnham. There had been disagreement amongst MPs in the centre-right Labour First grouping between those who wanted a Streeting challenge and those who wanted the PM to stay in place. Keir Starmer has said he will fight any challenge and I’m told he has seen polling that suggests he might win a contest in which not just MPs, but the wider membership, would vote – so long as Burnham isn’t on the ballot. If the challengers are Streeting and perhaps Angela Rayner, he may choose to fight on. But I’m told the pressure is on him tonight to stand aside. So far only junior aides have gone but at least one of the camps has told me it might be necessary at some point to have ministerial resignations to concentrate his mind. There are also well-sourced suggestions that a further 50 MPs might call for his departure. If he does reach the conclusion that his premiership is unsustainable, the timescale for the subsequent leadership contest could determine the winner. Housing secretary says '90% of us' don't want Starmer to go Housing secretary Steve Reed told BBC Radio 4's PM programme earlier he understood MPs were posting calls online for the PM to go, but said there was around "90% of us that don't want that to happen". "We want to focus on what the public want... not talking to ourselves" about a new leader, he said. Reed said the Conservatives "showed us why this doesn't work - they went through prime minister after prime minister" after bad polls and elections. "Clearly we're still dealing with the aftermath of a very, very difficult set of local election results," he said. Reed said the government accepted there needed to be change but it didn't help to "chuck out" prime ministers. Things are moving quickly right now and Starmer is very vulnerable Chris Mason Political editor Labour's rollercoaster of emotion and anger has zipped this way and that today. At the prime minister's speech, this morning - jitters in the audience about what was at stake. But then the former minister Catherine West backed down from her threat to be a leadership contender intent on derailing his premiership. That was followed by a near constant soundtrack of Labour MPs, one after another, publicly calling for him to go, sooner or later. And by teatime, the most significant of those - the resignation of ministerial aides, from the lowest rung of the government - saying they too had lost faith in their leader. One of them, Joe Morris, was the parliamentary private secretary to Wes Streeting, the health secretary not short of prime ministerial ambition. What might Streeting do next? And how soon could Andy Burnham - currently marooned outside parliament and so ineligible for any imminent contest - find a vacant seat, persuade the party to let him stand, and try to win it, with Labour so unpopular? Within a month or two, claim his friends. Let's see. Things are moving quickly right now and Keir Starmer is very vulnerable. Third parliamentary private secretary resigns Naushabah Khan says she has resigned as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Cabinet Office as she calls for new Labour leadership. Khan, who is MP for Gillingham and Rainham, says she has always put her constituents' interests first, and that is why she has made the "difficult decision to resign". "We need a clear change of direction now and no game playing," she says, adding that a Labour government "can and will rise to meet the moment if we act now". "I am calling for new leadership, so that we can rebuild trust and deliver the better future that the British people voted for," she writes. Starmer 'no longer has trust of the public,' says ministerial aide Joe Morris We can now bring you more from Parliamentary Private Secretary Joe Morris following his resignation. Morris, who was the aide to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, writes that "constituents need a Labour government in order to reduce the cost of living, to invest in our communities and our infrastructure and to make good on the promises made at the General Election". "Regrettably, it is now clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public to lead this change," he writes. "It is in the best interests of the country and the party that the prime minister sets out a swift timetable to ensure that a new leader is in place to regain the confidence of the public and to ensure that the government can deliver on the commitments it has made." Morris is the MP for Tynedale, West Newcastle, Ponteland and Longhorsley. If number of MPs continues to tick up, PM will be under pressure to respond Chris Mason Political editor As Labour MPs call for Starmer to go, there is a feeling of momentum that the pace is quickening, that more and more names are being made public. There is plenty of talk here tonight that there is plenty more to follow. So, 55 Labour MPs and counting saying the prime minister should go or set a timetable to go. If that number continues to remorselessly tick up, as it has been doing in the last few minutes and hours, it won't be sustainable in all likelihood. There will be demands for the prime minister to say something, do something and respond to a party that increasingly is in open revolt. Tom Rutland's statement in full following resignation We can now bring you the full statement from Tom Rutland, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, who has just resigned from the role of parliamentary private secretary to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Rutland says he will continue to represent his constituents as a backbencher. He writes: "It is with regret that I believe the prime minister should now set out a timetable for his departure and for a new Leader to be chosen to lead the Labour Party and the country. I watched brilliant councillors lose their seats last week through no fault of their own. "Time and time again, speaking with voters at their doors, I heard little dislike for local councillors nor for the Labour Party, but the animosity towards the prime minister was clear from every voter who was choosing to vote for another party or considering doing so. It reminded me of the reaction I got when speaking with voters under a former leader. "It is clear to me that the prime minister has lost authority not just within the Parliamentary Labour Party but across the country and that he will not be able to regain it. That significantly impedes the ability of the Government to deliver the change that people voted for at the general election - change that we must deliver. "We also have a generational responsibility to stop Reform's hatred and division from taking over our great country. It weighs heavily on me and all of us must do all we can to prevent this from happening. I do not have faith that the prime minister can meet this challenge. "It is not compatible to hold this view and continue to serve on the frontbench, so I have resigned as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and will continue to represent my wonderful constituents in East Worthing and Shoreham from the backbenches."