Rosa Prince, Columnist

How Britain Can Remove Keir Starmer

February 11, 2026 at 5:00 AM UTC

Rosa Prince is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering UK politics and policy. She was formerly an editor and writer at Politico and the Daily Telegraph, and is the author of "Comrade Corbyn" and "Theresa May: The Enigmatic Prime Minister."

Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham. Don’t frighten the bond markets.
Photographer: Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard

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Keir Starmer has won yet another stay of execution. For much of Sunday and Monday, the UK prime minister teetered on the brink, only to be hauled back at the last minute by his not-so-faithful cabinet.

In those treacherous hours, Starmer’s rivals stared into the abyss and concluded the time wasn’t quite right to shove him in. The rationale was different for each. Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is still caught up in a probe into her tax affairs. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham needs to find a way back to the House of Commons. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has yet to unite the party behind him, and so on.