4 ministers resign Cabinet as Britain's Starmer resists calls to quit

May 12 (UPI) -- Four junior members of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Cabinet resigned from their roles Tuesday, after his Labour Party had a disastrous showing in parliamentary elections.

The Guardian reported that more than 80 members of Parliament have called for Starmer to resign his post. Starmer has resisted the calls amid the election shakeup.

"The country expects us to get on with governing," he told ministers during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday morning.

Four ministers announced they were quitting Tuesday, Jess Phillips, undersecretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, part of the Home Office; Zubir Ahmed, undersecretary of state for health innovation and safety, part of the Department of Health and Social Care; Alex Davies-Jones, undersecretary of state for victims and tackling violence against women and girls, part of the Home Office; and Miatta Fahnbulleh, undersecretary of state for devolution, faith and communities, part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

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Both Phillips and Ahmed have close relationships with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is seen as a possible challenger to Starmer, The New York Times reported.

"It is clear from recent days that the public across the U.K. has now irretrievably lost confidence in you as prime minister," Ahmed said in his resignation letter to Starmer.

In a speech Monday in London, Starmer pledged to take Britain in a bigger, bolder more optimistic direction with a closer relationship with the European Union. He acknowledged past mistakes but said he plans to prove his critics wrong by bringing "a bigger response" because "incremental change won't cut it on growth, defense, Europe, energy."

He said that if he resigned, it would open the door for Nigel Farage of the far-right Reform UK to take control.

"We are not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents, very dangerous opponents," Starmer said.

"This is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation, and I want to be crystal clear about how we will win, because we cannot win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens. We can only win as a stronger version of Labour, a mainstream party of power, not protest," Starmer said.