Streeting Prepares to Challenge Starmer as King's Speech Looms

Westminster spent May 13 absorbing the closest thing to an open Labour leadership challenge since Keir Starmer took office, with the King's Speech ceremony reduced to backdrop.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting was preparing to trigger the contest as early as Thursday. Allies told the BBC he was preparing to stand down from health and mount the bid, which requires the backing of 81 Labour MPs. The public count was already lopsided: more than 90 Labour MPs publicly called for Starmer's resignation, while 110+ Labour lawmakers had publicly stated they wanted him to remain. Streeting met Starmer for less than 20 minutes at Downing Street on Wednesday morning, and Starmer did not directly address the resignation calls during the King's Speech debate. Downing Street insisted Starmer retained "full confidence" in Streeting and said he remained health secretary. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the prime minister he faced "a crisis of vision, charisma and electoral success."

The ceremony proceeded with its symbolism inverted. King Charles III delivered the throne speech at Westminster, outlining around three dozen bills and draft bills as Labour's legislative priorities for the coming year, with a security framing designed to address Starmer's unpopularity. The setting was preceded by Labour's loss of just under 1,500 English council seats the previous week, on top of losses in Scotland and Wales, and the resignation of four junior ministers; 86 Labour MPs had publicly called for Starmer's resignation by the time the King spoke. Bond markets read the politics: gilt yields rose and sterling moved on the leadership uncertainty.

Devolution moved on its own clock. In Cardiff, First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth named the cabinet of Wales' first ever Plaid Cymru government, having been confirmed first minister on Tuesday after Plaid became the largest party in the Senedd. Sioned Williams takes the deputy first minister portfolio, former Senedd presiding officer Elin Jones becomes finance minister, former Plaid leader Adam Price is enterprise minister, and former Westminster MP Elfyn Llwyd is named counsel general designate. Ap Iorwerth called the cabinet a "wholesale" change of approach.

The Russia file closed out the day. Moscow placed former UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on its wanted list via a Russian Interior Ministry database entry, without disclosing the specific criminal article. Russian media linked the move to Wallace's September 2025 calls for strikes that would render Crimea "uninhabitable."