Downing Street communications director Tim Allan resigned on Monday, a day after chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigned in the wake of the scandals revealed in the Epstein files. According to The Guardian, Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald could be the next person in Starmer's inner circle to defect.
In addition, Starmer is under pressure from developments surrounding the dismissed ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, who has been shown to have had close contacts with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The defections have been followed by demands both within and outside Starmer's Labour Party that he should resign.
Existential crisis
Labour's leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, called on the Prime Minister to step down and allow the country's government to concentrate on real problems that affect the everyday lives of Britons.
"That's why this distraction must end. And the leadership must be replaced," he said at a press conference.
Several Labour MPs agree, and sources at both the BBC and Sky News say the MPs have pressured the party leader to ensure the problems are resolved, an "existential crisis" according to Tan Dhesi of Slough.
Similar words have come from the leader of the Greens, Zack Polanski, and the leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch. The Liberal Democrats' Ed Davey is not calling for Starmer's resignation, but for a new election if Labour does not end what he calls "a soap opera."
Government support
But Starmer has the support of a nearly unanimous government, with several ministers coming out to support him. So does Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister who left her post in September last year and has now been identified as a possible successor. On X, she urges the party to stop bickering internally and instead unite behind Starmer.
From the Prime Minister himself, the message is clear:
"Having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I am not prepared to give up my mandate and my responsibility, or to plunge us into chaos, as others have done," he told party representatives in Westminster.
