Nearly 100 labor ministers have called for the prime minister Starmer to resign. Wes Streeting is expected to meet with Starmer tomorrow morning and ask how he expects to solve the problems. If that leads to asking and getting Starmer to step down, Milband will run for the Labour leadership, but the process is a bit complicated.

Below is the process:

Step 1 — The resignation itself

If Starmer chooses to go, he would formally tender his resignation to King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. As we discussed earlier, tomorrow is the King’s Speech — the State Opening of Parliament — which is one reason potential challengers have been biding their time. A resignation in the middle of that ceremony would be constitutionally extraordinary, so the most likely window is immediately after.

Step 2 — Triggering the Labour leadership contest

This is where it gets complicated. Unlike the Conservatives, Labour doesn’t simply vote no-confidence in a leader. A formal contest requires at least 81 Labour MPs — 20% of the 403-strong Parliamentary Labour Party — to nominate a candidate. Crucially, those backers must go public, as there is no secret ballot at the nomination stage. Starmer himself, if he chose to fight rather than resign, would automatically be on the ballot.

Step 3 — Who can actually stand?

This is where the frontrunner picture gets messy right now:

• Wes Streeting — Health Secretary, seen as the right-flank candidate, has been silent but is now saying he would run.
• Angela Rayner — Former Deputy PM, polls well with the membership but is currently hamstrung by an unresolved tax investigation into her stamp duty affairs. Cannot credibly run until that is cleared.
• Andy Burnham — The public’s favourite according to polling, but faces a fundamental obstacle: he is not an MP. He would need to win a by-election before he could even be nominated — a process that takes weeks and was previously blocked by Labour’s own National Executive Committee.
• Shabana Mahmood — The Home Secretary has not denied leadership ambitions and received what was widely seen as a Tony Blair endorsement at a recent high-profile event.

Step 4 — The vote itself

Once candidates are nominated, the contest goes to a full ballot of Labour Party members and affiliated trade union members across the country — not just MPs. This is significant because the membership tends to lean further left than the Parliamentary party, which could favour a more progressive candidate over a Streeting-type centrist. The winner needs a majority of that combined vote.

Step 5 — Becoming Prime Minister

The Labour leader does not automatically become PM the moment they win the contest. The King invites the person who commands a majority in the House of Commons to form a government. Given Labour’s large majority, the new leader would almost certainly be invited to become PM — but there is a formal constitutional step of going to the Palace first.

The timeline problem

The entire process could take six to ten weeks — an eternity given the political and economic instability already rattling UK gilt markets today. That is precisely why over 100 Labour MPs signed a letter today saying “this is no time for a leadership contest” — the disruption of a prolonged vacancy at the top, with no clear frontrunner able to step in cleanly, may be the strongest argument keeping Starmer in office for now.