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Starmer on the brink with party in revoltpublished at 05:27 BST

05:27 BST

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, PA Media

The UK has had four prime ministers in the last four years. And now another stands on the brink; his party in open revolt, his own cabinet split on whether he should go.

Sir Keir Starmer and his supporters have been resolute in their view that it would be “insane”, as one put it to me, to plunge the party, the government, the country into a lengthy, noisy leadership contest of uncertain outcome.

But the remorseless logic of growing demands for his departure from his own MPs means the PM confronts the most awkward and painful of days.

Those MPs cannot shake a sense he is repellent to too many voters just as Labour wrestles with how to take on Reform UK.

Already bad blood oozes from the Labour movement, with rival leadership camps briefing against each other.

At the same time, many other Labour MPs are looking on in horror at the implosion they are witnessing.