Sir Keir Starmer could face a leadership challenge as early as the new year, as Labour MPs claim the prime minister is now unable to sack his chief of staff because it would hasten his own departure.
In a bid to draw a line under the turmoil that has engulfed his government this week, Sir Keir insisted he had been assured that no one in Downing Street was responsible for the briefing against his health secretary, Wes Streeting, on Tuesday.
The briefing, which is being blamed on chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, suggested that Mr Streeting was preparing to launch a leadership coup. But even as the prime minister sought to end the row by apologising to Mr Streeting, calls for sackings continued to grow.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband, who has also been accused of being on manoeuvres to replace Sir Keir, repeated demands by Mr Streeting that the person responsible be sacked.
Mr Miliband, asked whether the prime minister should sack whoever is found to be responsible for the briefings, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course he should.”
Meanwhile, another minister said: “He should sack [Mr McSweeney] but we all know he can’t. They are locked together in mutual survival.”
Others said Mr McSweeney was “probably unsackable” but added that the prime minister “should be very worried”.
Another set of briefings against Sir Keir’s director of communications, Tim Allan, appears to suggest that a civil war has broken out among senior figures in Downing Street.
Mr McSweeney has been credited with getting Sir Keir elected as Labour leader, facilitating the party’s revival following the disastrous Jeremy Corbyn era, and was also praised for helping Labour to win the general election.
But concerns are growing about his influence in Downing Street, with one minister claiming that Mr McSweeney “basically did the reshuffle” after Angela Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary.
One MP said: “The question we all have now is whether a change of leader will improve things. We are averaging under 20 per cent in the polls; it could hardly be worse.”
Another MP noted: “We only need 20 per cent of MPs to nominate someone [to challenge Starmer]. That’s doable now.”
Meanwhile, one senior figure suggested that a challenge could come as early as January, in a bid to retain some of the seats likely to be at risk in the May elections.
They said: “Lots of people are saying to me, why wait? Why not at least try and save thousands of councillors and some Welsh Senedd members and Scottish parliamentarians?”
John McTernan, who served as a strategist in the Blair government, said: “Before this happened, everyone was kicking the question about a change of leader down the road. But this week has forced the question. It has probably brought it all forward.
“The trouble is that the briefing had the authority of No 10, whether the prime minister knew about it or not. So he either has no confidence in his health secretary, which means [Mr Streeting] has to go, or he has to sack his chief of staff.”
In a withering attack, Alastair Campbell, who served as Tony Blair’s spin doctor during the New Labour years, said public support for the prime minister was “draining away” fast, adding that the government had “no compelling narrative” and had scored “too many own goals”.
Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Campbell said: “There are bigger, worse enemies – like Nigel Farage, who if we are not careful [is] going to come in and take over this country and take it to a very dark place.”
Labour grandee and former home secretary Lord Blunkett urged Starmer to sack his chief of staff.
He said: “I would say to Morgan, ‘Look, you’ve got great skills. You helped enormously with me in building a winning team before the election. Now’s the time for me to find you another role that you’re good at, and I will bring someone in with the overall experience that we need to be the chief of staff.'”
Speaking to reporters in Anglesey, Sir Keir insisted he will “absolutely deal with anybody responsible for briefing against ministers”, following the bitter briefing war that has erupted at the heart of government.
He said: “First, let me be clear that any briefing against ministers is completely unacceptable. That is not a new position for me, it is a position I have adopted ever since I became prime minister. I have made it very clear to my team.
“I have been talking to my team today. I have been assured that no briefing against ministers was done from No 10, but I have made it clear that I find it absolutely unacceptable.”
He added: “I have been assured it didn’t come from Downing Street, but I have been equally clear that whether it is this case or any other, I intend to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street said that the PM has full confidence in Mr Allan, after calls were made for an investigation to be launched into Sir Keir’s communications chief amid claims of a conflict of interest.
These centre on Mr Allan’s shares in a lobbying company, Strand Partners, in which he holds a minority stake, and reported discussions about politics with one of its consultants, Tom Baldwin. The Conservatives have called for a full Cabinet Office investigation, while the Liberal Democrats have also demanded an inquiry.
Labour said the idea that Mr Allan had done anything to benefit Strand Partners while in No 10 was “categorically false”, and that any interactions with Mr Baldwin took place “in [Mr Baldwin’s] capacity as a journalist and have not related to Strand, its business or its clients”.
A Strand Partners spokesperson said Mr Baldwin, the prime minister’s biographer, is a journalist who “does not engage in government relations for Strand”, adding that “this is not part of his terms of engagement with us”.
