Labour Starmer safe for now but MPs fear May election mauling

Labour MPs have said they believe Keir Starmer’s leadership is safe until at least the May elections, after a budget that avoided any major damaging measures but which few believe will revive the party’s fortunes.

- Jessica Elgot Pippa Crerar

Reeves at University College hospital in London with Wes Streeting, centre, who was among ministers sent out to sweet-talk Labour MPs after the budget

(LAUREN HURLEY/AVALON)

More than a dozen previously loyal MPs told the Guardian they did not believe the budget would shift the fundamentals required for the party to beat Reform. “It only delays what is inevitable,” one minister said.

On Wednesday night after the budget, the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and many ministers, including the health secretary, Wes Streeting, did the rounds in the Commons chatting to MPs - a tacit declaration of peace after the fallout from a week of furious briefing about Streeting’s leadership ambitions from allies of Starmer.

Those close to Starmer were adamant he would never have walked away had the budget fuelled more criticism of his leadership. “The idea he’d walk away if somebody said the budget hadn’t landed well is nonsense,” a senior No 10 source said.

MPs said they had been “love bombed” in the run-up to the budget, with Rachel Reeves meeting more than 100 MPs individually and name-checking many of them in her speech.

“Everyone is getting photo ops and invites to Chequers,” said one MP. “The budget doesn’t change the fundamentals that they are one crap decision away from catastrophe.”