Most Labour Party Members Demand Keir Starmer’s Resignation Before the Election

According to a new poll, more than half of Labour Party members do not want Sir Keir Starmer to lead the party into the next general election. A Survation survey, conducted for LabourList and released on Sky News, found that 53% of members favored replacing the leader before the election, while only 31% backed keeping Starmer in place until then.

These numbers underscore the scale of the challenge facing the prime minister ahead of the Liverpool conference. He arrives there after another poll showed Reform leader Nigel Farage with a clear path to becoming prime minister.

Additional pressure came from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who in a series of interviews hinted at renewed ambitions to contest the party leadership, noting that many Labour MPs in private urged him to return to Westminster.

Burnham, a two-time contender for the leadership, openly criticized Starmer, saying that Downing Street had “created an atmosphere of fear” among MPs and led to “alienation and demoralization” within the party. As an alternative, he outlined his own program for “national renewal,” including higher council tax on expensive properties in London and the South East, as well as expanded public control over energy, water, and rail.

All this comes amid instability in the prime minister’s inner circle: in recent weeks he has lost several key allies, including former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, UK ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, political strategy director Paul Ovenden, and outgoing communications chief Steph Driver.

A LabourList poll of 1,254 party members conducted between September 23 and 25 showed mounting dissatisfaction with the government’s direction: 65% said Keir Starmer was taking the country the wrong way, while only 26% believed otherwise. More than 60% of respondents judged him to be performing poorly as prime minister, against 35% who rated him positively.

These findings add to a bleak outlook for Labour. A major YouGov survey commissioned by Sky News using the MRP method and a sample of 13,000 people suggested that if an election were held tomorrow the UK would face a hung parliament. Reform UK would win 311 seats in the House of Commons — just 15 short of a majority. According to the projection, Labour would secure 144 seats, the Liberal Democrats 78, the Conservatives 45, the Scottish National Party 37, the Greens seven, Plaid Cymru six, with three going to left-leaning independents. Northern Ireland constituencies were not included.

For Labour, such an outcome would mean losing around two-thirds of its parliamentary seats — falling from the 411 won in last year’s election to just 144. That would mark the party’s worst result since 1931, an even steeper decline than in the 2019 election under Jeremy Corbyn, when Labour secured 202 seats.

Starmer’s personal approval ratings have also sunk to a record low. A new Ipsos poll found that only 13% of respondents approved of the prime minister’s performance, while 79% disapproved. His net rating stands at -66, worse than the previous lows of -59 recorded for Rishi Sunak in April 2024 and John Major in August 1994.

Labour’s overall standing is equally weak: just 22% of voters said they would back the party if an election were held today, compared with 34% who would vote for Reform UK.

Despite this, Starmer insists he can “turn things around.” In an interview with The Sunday Times he said: “This is the battle of our time, and we must fight it together. We do not have the luxury of self-reflection or idle chatter. There will always be a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but it will not solve the problems facing the country. Once you realise the discord Reform would bring and how it would tear apart our unity as a patriotic nation, it becomes clear this is a fight bigger than the Labour Party itself.”

Starmer has previously warned that the coming election would be an “open contest” between Labour and Reform UK.