Sir Keir Starmer was engaged in his toughest battle yet to remain Prime Minister as Health Secretary Wes Streeting was poised to launch a leadership challenge against him.
As full-scale civil war erupted within the Labour Party, the PM was vowing to fight any attempt to oust him.
But an ally of Mr Streeting, MP for Ilford North, said he was “going to go for it” on Thursday after a showdown meeting with Sir Keir in No10 ahead of the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.
Mr Streeting would need to get 81 Labour MPs, 20 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party, to back his demand for a leadership contest for it to be triggered.
If he gets the numbers, a candidate on the Left of the party is expected to challenge him.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is favoured by many MPs on the Left to take on Mr Streeting who is on the Right of the party.
But he is not currently an MP and does not appear to have a quick way back to Parliament for him to enter a leadership race.
If he does not stand then former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir’s Government, may do so.
However, she still has a tax row with HMRC hanging over her so it is possible that former Labour leader Ed Miliband, the Net Zero Secretary, may also be a candidate.
Armed Forces Minister Al Carns also appears to have been manoeuvring for a possible leadership bid but he only became an MP two years ago and has limited ministerial experience.
Other possible contenders include Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
More than 100 Labour MPs have come out in support of the PM as he fought back against the threatened coup.
But around the same number have called on him to quit.
Four ministers, including Peckham MP Miatta Fahnbulleh, who was faith minister, have resigned and many more MPs and ministers are believed to want Sir Keir to set out a timetable for his departure to try to avoid a leadership bloodletting.
Loyal Cabinet ministers were working the Commons members’ tea room on Wednesday urging colleagues not to “plunge the party into chaos” and warning that a leadership contest would paralyse the Government for months.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, and Communities Secretary Steve Reed, MP for Streatham and Croydon North, have been among his staunchest supporters.
But Sir Keir’s hopes that his leadership crisis would ease were hit on Wednesday morning when Zubir Ahmed, an ally of Mr Streeting who quit as a health minister on Tuesday, stepped up his attack on the Prime Minister.
Hours later, the PM was hit with a fresh setback when unions affiliated to Labour, including Unite, Unison and the GMB, said they did not believe he would lead the party into the next general election, expected in 2029.
They stressed that “at some stage a plan will have to be put in place for the election” of a new Leader.
