2026年5月14日 / 美国东部时间上午10:14 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
推翻英国首相基尔·斯塔默的行动周四演变为公开反叛，一名潜在竞争对手辞去内阁职务，另一名则为自己参与未来任何党魁竞选扫清了障碍。
卫生大臣韦斯·斯特里廷成为首位辞去斯塔默内阁职务的高级内阁成员，此举预计将成为挑战其领导地位的前奏。
“你在国际舞台上展现了勇气和政治家风范——尤其是在让英国远离伊朗战争方面，”斯特里廷在辞职信中写道。“但在我们需要远见的地方，我们却陷入了真空；在我们需要指引的地方，我们却在随波逐流。”
“现在很明显，你不会带领工党参加下一次大选，”他补充道。
他的宣布紧随周二斯塔默政府其他四名成员的辞职。
在工党于上周地方和区域选举中遭遇惨败后，斯塔默面临越来越大的辞职压力。
长期以来政治野心众所周知的斯特里廷，被认为是少数可能试图推翻斯塔默的人物之一。
在辞职信中，他提及了自己任内改善医疗服务的进展，并指出作为其首要优先事项之一的国民保健署预约等待时间已连续五个月下降。
2026年5月13日，也就是宣布辞去斯塔默内阁职务的前一天，英国卫生大臣韦斯·斯特里廷在与首相基尔·斯塔默会面后离开唐宁街10号。莱昂·尼尔 / 盖蒂图片社
斯特里廷还辩称，支持者“希望关于未来的辩论是一场理念之战，而非个人恩怨或狭隘的派系斗争。这场辩论需要具有广泛性，需要最优秀的候选人阵营。”
其他潜在挑战者
另一位可能的挑战者、前副首相安吉拉·雷纳周四表示，她已与税务部门达成协议，解决了去年9月迫使她辞职的税务问题。
雷纳告诉《卫报》，斯塔默应该“反思”自己的职位，并补充说，如果斯特里廷引发党魁竞选，她已准备好在任何党魁选举中“尽自己的一份力”。
大曼彻斯特市长安迪·伯纳姆也被广泛视为潜在候选人，但他必须先重返议会才能参选。其盟友暗示，现任下议院议员可能会辞职，以便为伯纳姆参加特别选举让路。
伯纳姆本周取消了周四常规的BBC地方电台节目露面，以“优先处理上周选举引发的相关讨论”。
根据工党规则，任何挑战首相的潜在候选人必须获得下议院403名工党议员中81人的支持。最近几天，已有超过这一人数的议员公开呼吁斯塔默辞职。
斯特里廷和斯塔默一样，来自左翼工党的温和派。雷纳则是众多左翼选民的宠儿，她呼吁工党采取更多措施提高最低工资并对富人增税。
其他潜在候选人仍可能加入任何党魁竞选。
利物浦大学政治学教授乔纳森·汤恩表示，尽管目前推翻斯塔默的行动有可能不了了之，但考虑到英国政治的分裂程度，这可能只会将危机推迟几个月。
“如果一场内战在本应执政我们国家的工党内部爆发，这是一种非同寻常的局面，毕竟基尔·斯塔默不到两年前才赢得了工党有史以来最辉煌的选举胜利之一，”汤恩说。
“他拥有庞大的议会多数席位，拥有400多名议员，但他的首相职位可能正处于崩溃的边缘，”他补充道。
经济与选举失利的代价
自上周工党在地方和区域选举中遭遇惨重损失以来，要求斯塔默下台的压力加剧，由特朗普盟友奈杰尔·法拉奇领导的民粹主义反移民政党改革党取得了重大进展。
选举结果凸显了选民对政府未能兑现提振经济增长和改善工薪阶层生活水平承诺的不满。
经济停滞不前和居高不下的消费者价格通胀，使得斯塔默政府在不到两年前以压倒性优势赢得大选后，难以兑现其承诺。
斯塔默已誓言留任，并警告议员们，任何党魁竞选都会让政府陷入“混乱”，而此时政府本应专注于生活成本危机和中东战争等议题。
“国家期待我们继续开展治理工作，”斯塔默周二表示。“这就是我正在做的事情，也是我们作为内阁必须做的事情。”
周四上午，一则罕见的积极经济消息为他抵御党魁挑战的努力提供了支撑。英国国家统计局表示，今年前三个月国内生产总值（衡量整体经济活动的广泛指标）增长了0.6%，而上一季度为0.2%。
财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯表示，这些数据表明她的政策正在奏效，经济的重新增长将使政府能够为公共服务和支持受高生活成本影响人群的项目投入更多资金。
“但这之所以成为可能，只是因为我们为经济恢复了稳定，”她告诉BBC。“在世界上存在冲突的时刻，我们不应该让国家陷入混乱，从而危及这一点。”
U.K. health secretary resigns in scathing letter, setting up challenge to Starmer’s leadership
May 14, 2026 / 10:14 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Efforts to unseat British Prime Minister Keir Starmer broke out into open rebellion Thursday, with one potential rival resigning from the Cabinet and another clearing the way for her to enter any future leadership contest.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting became the first senior minister to quit Starmer’s Cabinet in what is expected to be a precursor to challenging his leadership.
“You have shown courage and statesmanship on the world stage — not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran,” Streeting wrote in a letter. “But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”
“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election,” he added.
His announcement followed the resignations of four other members of Starmer’s government on Tuesday.
Starmer is facing growing pressure to step down after his Labour Party’s disastrous results last week in local and regional elections.
Streeting, whose political ambitions have long been known, is considered one of a handful of people who could try to unseat Starmer.
In his letter, he called attention to progress in improving health services under his leadership, noting that waiting times for National Health Service appointments — one of his signature priorities — had fallen for the fifth straight month.
U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting leaves 10 Downing Street following a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on May 13, 2026, the day before announcing his resignation from Starmer’s Cabinet. Leon Neal / Getty Images
Streeting also argued that supporters “want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism. It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates.”
Other potential challengers
Another likely challenger, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said Thursday that she had reached an agreement with tax authorities to clear up questions about her taxes that forced her to leave the Cabinet last September.
Rayner told the Guardian newspaper that Starmer should “reflect on” his position, adding that she was ready to “play my part” in any leadership election if Streeting were to trigger a contest.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is also widely seen as a potential candidate, though he would have to find a way back into Parliament before he could run. Allies have suggested a sitting member of the House of Commons could resign to make way for Burnham to run in a special election.
Burnham canceled his regular Thursday appearance on a local BBC radio program this week to “prioritize discussions arising from last week’s elections.”
Under Labour Party rules, any potential challenger to the prime minister would have to have the backing of 81 of the party’s 403 members in the House of Commons. More than that number have publicly called on Starmer to quit in recent days.
Streeting comes from the moderate wing of the left-leaning Labour Party, as does Starmer. Rayner is a favorite of many more left-wing voters, calling on the party to do more to boost the minimum wage and raise taxes on the rich.
Other potential candidates may still enter any race for the leadership.
While there is a chance that the current efforts to unseat Starmer will fizzle out, that would probably just delay the crisis for a few months given the level of fragmentation in British politics, said Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool.
If “a civil war opens up within a Labour Party that’s supposed to be governing us at present, it’s an extraordinary state of affairs given it’s less than two years since Keir Starmer won one of Labor’s greatest election victories ever,” Tonge said.
“He’s got a huge parliamentary majority, he’s got more than 400 MPs, and yet his prime ministership may be on the brink of disintegration,” he added.
Economy and election losses take toll
Pressure for Starmer to step aside has intensified since Labour suffered steep losses in local and regional elections last week, with the populist, anti-immigration party Reform UK, led by Trump ally Nigel Farage, making big gains.
The results underscored voter frustration with a government that has failed to deliver on pledges to boost economic growth and improve living standards for working people.
A stagnant economy and stubbornly high consumer price inflation have made it difficult for Starmer’s government to deliver on its promises after winning a landslide election victory less than two years ago.
Starmer has vowed to remain in office, warning lawmakers that any leadership contest would plunge the government into “chaos” at a time it should be focused on issues like the cost of living crisis and war in the Middle East.
“The country expects us to get on with governing,” Starmer said Tuesday. “That is what I am doing and what we must do as a Cabinet.”
His effort to fight off a leadership challenge was bolstered Thursday morning by a rare bit of positive economic news. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic activity, grew 0.6% in the first three months of the year, compared with 0.2% in the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said the figures showed that her policies were working and that renewed economic growth would allow the government to put more money into public services and programs to support those hit by the high cost of living.
“But that is only possible because of the economic stability that we have brought back to our economy,” she told the BBC. “And we shouldn’t put that at risk by plunging the country in chaos at a time when there is conflict in the world.”