4th junior minister resigns as UK premier faces growing calls for resignation

Zubir Ahmed on Tuesday resigned as health innovation and safety minister, becoming the fourth junior minister to step down as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces calls for resignation after an electoral setback.

“I now ask you for the sake of that urgency and that national duty, to step aside and set a timetable for an expedient and orderly transition to new leadership that commands the confidence of our country,” Ahmed said in his resignation letter.

He becomes the fourth junior minister from the government to resign after Alex Davies-Jones stepped down as minister for victims & violence against women and girls, Miatta Fahnbulleh as communities minister, and Jess Phillips as safeguarding minister earlier on Tuesday.

The resignations came as some 90 Labour MPs urged the prime minister either to step down immediately or to draw up a timeline for leaving office.

Starmer entered the Cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday under severe strain following Labour’s poor performance in last week’s elections, which triggered open revolt inside the parliamentary party and exposed deep divisions within government over his future.

The turmoil deepened late Monday night when No. 10 replaced six ministerial aides who had quit earlier in the evening, in what appeared to be an effort to stabilize the government’s lower ranks as pressure on the prime minister intensified.

However, Starmer on Tuesday told ministers he will “get on with governing” despite growing pressure over Labour’s recent election defeat and calls for him to resign.

Speaking at the meeting, he sought to steady his government after what he described as a “destabilizing” period for Westminster.

According to a readout by No. 10, he told ministers: “As I said yesterday, I take responsibility for these election results and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised.

The pressure follows a series of damaging setbacks for Labour in last week’s elections. In Wales, the party suffered a historic defeat in the Senedd elections, while in Scotland the Scottish National Party retained power for a fifth consecutive term in the Scottish Parliament.

The elections, held across Scotland, Wales and 136 English local authorities, were the largest electoral test since Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 general election.

The Reform UK party also continued its recent rise, winning more than 1,450 council seats and building on gains made in local elections last year.