Is Starmer's premiership cracking under pressure of governing a fractious UK?

For a moment in July last year Keir Starmer was master of all he surveyed in Britain, with a whopping majority of MPs. Now, 500 days into his premiership on Sunday, the hairline cracks in his leadership have turned into chasms.

The political contagion of the UK's recent frenzied past remains unchecked with the growing likelihood that the prime minister will soon face a direct challenge to unseat him.

That thinking has come to the fore following a fiasco this week in which Downing Street made a backfiring attempt to see off one of the challengers, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting, by briefing against him, in the belief that it would scupper the bid.

That flopped spectacularly for Mr Starmer, draining yet more political credit from the Labour leader's near-empty bank, while increasing speculation about his looming political demise.

Keir Starmer with Wes Streeting. AFP

Icebergs ahead

Veteran Labour figures have told The National that some believe a change of leadership is necessary before the party founders further.

“Why wait to hit the iceberg if you can do a course correction?” one said. That reflects the sense of panic gripping the party as its popularity sinks ever further, with one poll suggesting it has even been overtaken by the resurgent Green party.

The leadership argument has grown with the increasing likelihood that Labour will face an “electoral meltdown” at important elections next May in Scotland, Wales and English local councils.

“A lot of people are asking, ‘why wait until May when you’ve lost the government of Wales for the first time and so on',” the insider said. “Why not do it now? It’s just a matter of timing rather than if it’s going to happen. Starmer will definitely be challenged and then it’s a question of A, does he want to fight it? And B, has he got enough juice to win?”

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Getty

Whispers of revolt

While the party has a whopping parliamentary majority with its 400 MPs, a vast number of those come with slim electoral margins. The party only secured just over a third of the popular vote, but the quirks of the electoral system gave it nearly two thirds of seats.

Since then Labour has plummeted in the polls, with its popularity cut almost in half to 18 per cent, about the same as the Conservatives and half of the increasingly popular far-right Reform UK. A series of leadership blunders and policy mishaps have plagued Mr Starmer’s constant attempts to stabilise the tottering economy and govern effectively, and open revolt could soon follow.

The signs were already there in September during the Labour conference in Liverpool when the popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham made an open leadership pitch that was ultimately rebuffed by a robust closing speech by Mr Starmer.

But that, it now appears, has not stopped the con