LONDON — MPs from Britain’s governing Labour party despair at what they brand a lack of decisiveness from their leader. Fortunately for Keir Starmer, they can’t decide what to do about it.

The U.K. prime minister appears trapped in Downing Street for now as his critics circle amid heavy midterm election losses for their party — yet have no immediate plan to boot him out.

While results were still rolling in Friday, Starmer responded by vowing to stay put, fight on, and improve his message to the public. Saying his 22-month-old government had done too little to give the U.K. hope, the center-left leader promised: “the steps that we will take to deliver the change that they want and that they deserve.” He added: “I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.”

Yet his words show that Starmer is caught in a dilemma of his own making. Dismissed by many on his own side as a weak leader, he is determined to signal to the country – and his party – that things will improve, while declining to make big adjustments to his overall policy direction.

Next week, he will set out Britain’s legislative agenda for the coming year via the King’s Speech, including tighter settlement rules for migrants, a rollout of digital ID, and votes for 16-year-olds. Yet all these plans were known to MPs already and locked down two weeks ago, and Labour aides studiously avoid using the word “reset.” Messaging around the speech is expected to focus on national resilience, stability, and economic growth, rather than radical change, said an official briefed on its contents.

Likewise, aides are drawing up plans for a speech by Starmer on Monday that will pitch to young voters who Labour lost on Thursday to the Green Party, including reinforcing his commitment to closer alignment with the EU. One MP elected in the landslide class of 2024 — the group most at risk of a reversal at the next general election — described it as “make or break.”

By Friday evening, a trickle of backbench MPs had started to call for Starmer to go — either immediately, or if he fails to rapidly overhaul his leadership. Downing Street will hope it doesn’t represent a bursting of the dam.

Labour isn’t alone in facing voter disenchantment with established parties, Deborah Mattinson, Starmer’s director of strategy at the last election, told POLITICO, but “there aren’t any quick fixes” for their frustrations. “We’re dealing with industrial-scale voter disillusionment — a sense that the social contract that voters bought into is gone,” Mattinson said. She added: “Labour has a moral mission to try to reach those working-class voters who are feeling left behind and that the economy is not working for them.”

Two officials with knowledge of the planned remarks said the prime minister is likely to reiterate his existing policy on the EU. One of the two officials said a tight group of aides is still working out how much policy will be in the Monday speech.

There will be some new items, albeit perhaps not on Monday. After months of deadlock, Starmer is expected to announce new money for defense in the coming weeks as he links his political future to leading on the world stage.

But overall, in Starmer’s world, change is code for stability. This is because he promised change in the 2024 general election, but from the previous chaotic Tory government, and as even his allies see it, the country has not responded well to the slow and steady approach he has offered. Asked if the strategy going forward now would be to emphasize change or “keep calm and carry on,” one Labour official said: “I think it’ll be a bit of both, and then we’ll fail at both.”

‘Change or be changed’

It is not just voters that have lost patience; Starmer’s own MPs increasingly have too.

The first to issue a veiled call for Starmer to go was Louise Haigh, the influential co-chair of the soft-left Tribune group. She told ITV that the PM “cannot lead us into another election” unless there is “significant and urgent change” from the government.

Anneliese Midgley, the MP for Knowsley who advised Starmer in opposition, told POLITICO: “It’s absolutely devastating. It’s much worse than expected across the North of England and if there’s not significant change, and really quickly, then it’s very clear that the PM cannot lead us into another election.”

One senior government minister said they want Starmer to “be the change or be changed.”

“We all want it to work out; if it doesn’t work out, we’ll do something else,” said the same minister, indicating they meant a change of leadership. “I’m expecting it to be much more political, with Labour politics much more visibly on show.”

Louise Haigh, one of the leading MPs on Labour’s “soft left” flank, told ITV Friday: “Unless the government delivers significant and urgent change, then the prime minister cannot lead us into another election.”

Yet Starmer’s MPs face a similar dilemma to him: ask what specific policy they want to change, and many of them come out with different answers.

One asked: “What’s the big change? You can’t just have a speech, you’ve got to have direction on policy and I just can’t see that happening without a big strategic shift.” Another said simply: “Fewer consultations would be a fucking start.”

An MP elected to an ultra-marginal seat in 2024 called for “a harder line on vested interests such as water companies. No tack to the left. Immigration. Immigration. Immigration.” They wanted to “get money out the door quicker for things like Pride in Place,” a funding scheme handed out to a long list of council areas.

Yet another MP elected in 2024 said they did not want “a random list of funding opportunities or statistics,” but instead “an actual narrative about why a Labour government.”

A serving minister said: “I want to see more emotion, and less technician. This is partly about better presentation. We should be offering more for the strivers, the ‘play by the rules’ families and the pro-Europeans. North Sea oil extraction and British common sense.”

Even Starmer’s most ardent left-wing critics have called for the policies, not the leader, to change.

Veteran MPs Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, both allies of the former left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn, said there should be a deeper discussion. And there will be a similar conversation about what to demand from Labour among the 11 unions formally affiliated to the party, whose general secretaries were due to meet virtually at 5 p.m. Friday.

Sharon Graham, the left-wing head of the Unite union, stopped short of calling for Starmer to quit, but said the results could mark “the beginning of the end for the party itself.” Andrea Egan, the left-wing leader of UNISON, added: “What must change is not just the leader but the entire approach: only a Labour government which always puts the interests of workers before the wealthy can succeed.”

But the unions can’t agree either. While some launched an all-out attack, others want to continue pressing their advantage with Labour. The body of 11 unions, abbreviated to TULO, is chaired by Joanne Thomas of the Starmer-friendly shopworkers’ union USDAW. She “runs a tight ship,” said one ally.

Starmer still has his die-hard allies, but such is the churn in government that some of them are relegated to presenting their vision privately.

Former No. 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who resigned in February after recommending Peter Mandelson be appointed U.S. Ambassador, is due to speak to a small group of businesses at a dinner in London next Wednesday, according to an invitation seen by POLITICO. The dinner is being hosted by Steph Driver and Paul Ovenden, two former No. 10 aides who have jointly set up an advisory firm.

Even those left in government can have their doubts. The Times newspaper reported Friday that Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and former Labour leader, had privately suggested to Starmer that he could set out a timetable for his departure. (Miliband’s spokesperson told POLITICO: “We do not accept this account.”)

Defense ‘central’ to post-election message

Starmer has not yet reached a final decision on how to boost defense funding, according to several people familiar with the discussions, despite security forming a key plank of his speech on Monday, as he seeks to stress he will provide stability and leadership on the world stage. A government official said defense and security would be “central” in Starmer’s post-election message.

Two people close to the internal government conversation on defense spending — one an industry figure and one an MP — said they expected Starmer to “overrule” Chancellor Rachel Reeves and announce more money for the Ministry of Defence in the coming weeks, offering a larger uplift than the recently reported range of £12 billion to £18 billion. There will be pressure to announce before the NATO summit in Turkey in July.

Yet the same people said they expected the new money would fall short of a £28 billion gap identified by the MOD, and that there was little clarity over whether it would be accompanied by publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan.

Sophia Gaston, a senior research fellow in the Centre for Statecraft at King’s College London, said: “I have yet to attend a meeting in Washington where it was not made clear that Britain will need to make a bold and genuine new offer on defence spending ahead of Ankara. And it isn’t just the Americans scrutinising the timing and delivery of the UK’s funding uplift, but many of our closest partners in Europe, such as Germany and those in the JEF.”

‘Lord, make him Prime Minister, but not yet’

Meanwhile, the surges by Reform UK and the Green Party are being felt in the back yards of Starmer’s potential leadership challengers. In Tameside, the patch of former deputy PM Angela Rayner, Labour was defending 17 seats and lost 16 of them to Reform.

All that will add a sting to Starmer’s plea to avoid the “chaos” of a leadership contest. For many of his MPs, the chaos is already here.

Yet a decision Starmer made months ago — to block Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from returning to parliament — may save him now. Many wavering MPs on the party’s “soft left” are unsure about Rayner and prefer Burnham.

Burnham’s supporters believe that even though the 10 officers on Labour’s ruling executive — including Starmer himself — blocked him from standing last time, they would not dare do it again, especially after elections to the body loosen Starmer’s grip slightly this summer.

One Burnham-allied MP said: “It would be so outrageous if the NEC blocked him again. It would be met with such a visceral reaction … I just don’t see how [Starmer] thinks he could instruct people to block him again.”

But one NEC official said: “Our judgement hasn’t changed. If anything it’s getting people’s backs up.”

One MP in Labour’s old northern heartlands pushing for Burnham said it would be too chaotic to force it through now: “I’m quite Augustinian about Andy: ‘Lord, make him Prime Minister, but not yet.’”

Even some MPs who would vote for Burnham do not believe he could win a general election in 2029. One MP elected in 2024 said: “He could take us to a respectable loss. There’s a world in which actually we get about 230 MPs and it isn’t as bad as everyone’s expecting and we hold on in our core areas.”

Meanwhile, the level of hostility to him from Starmer’s allies increases. Labour officials allied to Starmer expressed incredulity that Burnham had initially planned to give a Friday morning speech at the Festival of Childhood, hosted by the nonpartisan Children’s Commissioner. Burnham’s team cancelled before it was due to take place, and his team later denied repeated briefings from Westminster that it had been called off because the Commissioner found out he would give a political speech.

There are other reasons for MPs’ hesitancy.

Backbenchers and Cabinet ministers each push away the responsibility of triggering enough momentum for a contest. One minister who ardently supports Starmer said: “Obviously it’s the Cabinet’s job. They should have grown-up conversations with each other.”

While results were still rolling in Friday, some in Labour were also heartened by early projections from the pollster John Curtice that suggested the party would lose around 1,200 seats in England — hundreds fewer than the worst expectation. “I would jump at that if that turned out to be right,” said one Labour official.

Another senior Labour official backing Starmer said: “These are a rough set of results, and no one is denying that. But current results are better than predicted by some. Holding onto places like Merton [in south London] and Lincoln, and holding about half of seats defending definitely gives us something to build on.”

Talk was circling among MPs ahead of the elections that Starmer could carry out a minor reshuffle, such as in the whips’ office, which MPs have accused of being too close to No. 10. But one Labour official said the “tide is out” on that idea, due to the risk of angering allies and triggering a chain of events.

The cost of government borrowing also fell on Friday after Starmer said he would not be leaving office. “The markets are very twitchy,” said one government official. “It’s settled now it’s clear he won’t [go].”

‘Kryptonite’

Despite all this, many MPs believe it is a matter of time until Starmer leaves of his own accord or is ejected.

Many reported a deep personal dislike for the PM on the doorstep during this campaign; some blame AI-generated social media attack content. One sympathetic union official called the PM “kryptonite.”

A government minister recalled talking to a constituent who was overjoyed about how Labour had dealt with a local problem — but in the next breath, blamed Starmer personally for supposedly allowing a “mega-mosque” nearby.

Scarlett Maguire of the polling firm Merlin Strategy said: “Our polling and research in the run-up has shown dislike of Keir Starmer across the board. That was from Green voters, Labour voters, Lib Dem voters, Conservative voters, Reform voters, you name it. They were all saying very similar things about him, which primarily that he’s weak and that he doesn’t deliver, has just failed to deliver change.”

One MP whose Labour council fell out of the party’s control said: “I had people telling me they’d voted Labour all their lives but they would not vote Labour until he is gone as prime minister.”

One MP in the Red Wall added: “People are angry and want to punish those in power. It will never relent until he has gone.”

But it might not be as simple as just getting rid of Starmer.

“More than I’ve ever known in locals, people were seeing their vote in the locals very much through a national lens,” said Maguire. “Nearly seven in 10 voters were saying that their vote should be taken as sending a national message and on national issues rather than a local one.”

And that begs the question of all those who want rid of their leader. What will they do if the same fate befalls the next one?