Keir Starmer faces an existential battle for his premiership after the Labour Party's stunning losses in last week's local elections.
The prime minister has been on the ropes for a while. Many thought he would go after the Peter Mandelson scandal earlier this year, when sordid details emerged about the (now former) ambassador to the US and the Starmer ally's friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But Starmer clung on. No one wanted to replace him before the local elections, sources in the Labour Party told Middle East Eye.
Now, less than two years after his landslide general election vistory, the prime minister is being encircled.
Whitehall sources believe the leading contenders to be prime minister - should a race emerge - are former Health Secretary Wes Streeting; Starmer's former deputy, Angela Rayner; Energy Secretary Ed Miliband; and Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester.
