Sawt Falasteen - UK PM in peril as potential successors jockey for position

Starmer, who led his Labour party to victory in 2024 elections ending 14 years of Conservative rule, is fighting to save his job after disastrous local and regional polls last week.

Four junior ministers have resigned and more than 80 Labour MPs have urged him to quit, but he has vowed to cling on and more than 100 lawmakers from the ruling party have called for him to stay.

Although no one has so far broken ranks to formally challenge him, media have widely reported that Health Minister Wes Streeting was preparing to resign on Thursday to run for the top job.

Rayner, meanwhile, announced that UK tax authorities had "cleared" her of deliberate wrongdoing in a tax affair, opening the way for her to compete in a potential leadership race.

The 46-year-old insisted that she would not be the one to trigger a contest, but told the Guardian newspaper she would play "whatever role I can" to "deliver the change".

Rayner, a left-wing figurehead hugely popular amongst Labour's grassroots activists, also called on Starmer to "reflect" on his position.

She was forced to step down in September for underpaying a property duty, but said on Thursday the UK tax authority HMRC had exonerated her of "the accusation that I deliberately sought to avoid tax".

Media reported she had paid off £40,000 ($54,000) in outstanding tax.

"I welcome HMRC's conclusion, which has cleared me of any wrongdoing," she said in a statement.

"I set out to pay the correct amount of tax. I took reasonable care and acted in good faith, based on the expert advice I received, and HMRC has accepted this."

- Local poll drubbing -

Streeting, 43, is popular on the right of Labour, but is disliked by MPs on the left who would prefer Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as leader.

Burnham is currently blocked from running as he does not have a seat in the Westminster parliament. His supporters want Starmer to set a detailed timetable for his departure that allows Burnham to stand.

Rayner quit as deputy PM and housing, communities and local government minister after an investigation found she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England.

Voters last week punished Starmer over his 22 months in power in local ballots which saw huge gains for the hard-right Reform UK party and the left-wing populist Greens at Labour's expense.

The Labour Party lost control of the devolved Welsh parliament for the first time and failed to make up ground on the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the parliament in Edinburgh.

Rayner earlier stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign, but said voters were frustrated with the way the government was being run.

"What we are doing isn't working, and it needs to change," she said in a 1,000 word assessment of the party's electoral woes on Sunday.

Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs -- 20 percent of the party in parliament -- to trigger a contest.

Starmer has vowed to fight any contest and came out fighting on Monday, pledging to do better and prove his doubters "wrong".

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, in her first comments on the turmoil, urged colleagues Thursday not to put the economy "at risk" by "plunging the country into chaos" with a leadership challenge.

L.Hussein--SF-PST