Troubled Starmer hit with another coup plot rumour

Sir Keir Starmer could face a leadership challenge as early as the new year, as Labour MPs claim the prime minister is now unable to sack his chief of staff because it would hasten his own departure.

- DAVID MADDOX POLITICAL EDITOR

In a bid to draw a line under the turmoil that has engulfed his government this week, Sir Keir insisted he had been assured that no one in Downing Street was responsible for the briefing against his health secretary, Wes Streeting, on Tuesday.

The briefing, which is being blamed on chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, suggested that Mr Streeting was preparing to launch a leadership coup. But even as the prime minister sought to end the row by apologising to Mr Streeting, calls for sackings continued to grow.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband, who has also been accused of being on manoeuvres to replace Sir Keir, repeated demands by Mr Streeting that the person responsible be sacked.

Mr Miliband, asked whether the prime minister should sack whoever is found to be responsible for the briefings, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course he should.”

Meanwhile, another minister said: “He should sack [Mr McSweeney] but we all know he can’t. They are locked together in mutual survival.”

Others said Mr McSweeney was “probably unsackable” but added that the prime minister “should be very worried”. Another set of briefings against Sir Keir's director of communications, Tim Allan, appears to suggest that a civil war has broken out among senior figures in Downing Street.