FLASH
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The political earthquake following last week's election disaster has led to the resignation of four deputy ministers, but no ministers have yet left. The British prime minister, citing party procedures, has avoided resigning. His authority appears shaky, but uncertainty in the international arena could keep the rebels waiting.
"Come and overthrow me, if you are capable" - this is, in essence, the defiant message that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sent to critics and those who aim to remove him from power.
At a cabinet meeting held this morning in Downing Street, Starmer recalled that "the Labour Party has a procedure for challenging the leader and that procedure has not been activated. The country expects us to continue to govern: and that is what I am doing."
So there is no resignation, despite the disaster in last week's local elections: as a lawyer, Starmer refers to the procedure, which requires at least 81 signatures of Labour MPs in support of an alternative candidacy, after which a vote would be held among all party members.
But above all, he relies on the divisions among his opponents: because, although nearly a hundred deputies have already called for his removal, there is no agreement on a common candidate. On the other hand, yesterday over a hundred deputies signed an appeal in his support.
However, the prime minister's authority is waning by the hour. On Tuesday, four deputy ministers resigned one after the other, while the night before it was the turn of a wave of ministerial assistants. However, no minister has yet broken ranks, it is a slow wave of resignations, but we are still a long way from the crisis that brought down Boris Johnson four years ago when half the government resigned, making the position of the then Conservative prime minister unstable.
The situation is changing by the hour and it remains to be seen what Wes Streeting, the Health Minister who intends to replace Starmer, will do. Will he officially launch the challenge? What was seen this morning, at the end of the government meeting, was an unusual scene. The ministers closest to Starmer emerged one after another from the gate of Downing Street and spontaneously approached journalists to express their support for the prime minister.
According to them, the atmosphere at the cabinet meeting was unanimous and no one raised their voices against Starmer. The reasoning that seems to have prevailed is that, at this moment of severe international uncertainty, it would be destabilizing to plunge the country into a new political crisis without a clear direction. In this context, the reactions of the financial markets should also be seen, which, after seeing government bond yields rise to the highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis due to the climate of uncertainty, calmed down somewhat in the face of Starmer's determination not to resign.
Even public opinion, in the face of which the prime minister enjoys unprecedented levels of unpopularity, would hardly understand another political crisis, after the rapid rotation of Conservative prime ministers in recent years. “They elected me with a large majority,” Starmer thinks, “so it is my duty to continue.” At least for as long as they will allow./ Peshtati “Pamphlet” from “Corriere”.
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