Richard Tice lifts lid on 'four more Labour MPs' planning 'leadership challenges' against Keir Starmer: 'Sharpening the knives!'

Denying any plot to oust Sir Keir, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the reports of an overnight briefing are both "bizarre" and "juvenile".

Defending the Prime Minister, he added: "I don't think that's a helpful or constructive thing to say, I also don't think it's true. What I think he is doing is fighting to try and turn the country around from the enormous mess that we've inherited on so many fronts."

Weighing in on the Labour drama, Mr Tice told GB News: "I can reveal that I knew a week ago that this was bubbling up, and it's not just Wes Streeting, but there are three or four other cabinet ministers who are preparing leadership teams and plans for the inevitable challenge that is going to come in the coming months.

"The Prime Minister will be lucky to see out the May elections. What I think everybody suspects now and we can we can be pretty confident is that neither he nor the Chancellor see the Budget of 2026 in their current roles."

Noting the "mood" on the Labour benches during today's PMQs, he added: "The mood on the Labour benches was very sombre. They were trying to sort of support the Prime Minister.

"But the reality is that Barry Gardiner encapsulated it yesterday when he said 'there's no vision, no cohesion, it's essentially rudderless'. It's chaotic."

Mr Tice stated: "For someone of Barry Gardner's seniority as a long standing Labour MP, for him to essentially lose his confidence in his leadership team is quite extraordinary.

"And I think his typifies how significant this is. This is not a one bad day, this is a a serious move of despair amongst Labour."

Pushing back on Mr Tice's remarks, GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope said: "But he did win a landslide majority last year. There's only two Labour figures alive who have done that, one is Tony Blair, one is Keir Starmer. He's not going to go anywhere.

"I think if you look at the team around him, that's been differentiated since the election, he's losing people around him who can tell him what to do next and why to do it. He's losing the people who can help him with the political touch, and he needs some help, but he's not going to go anywhere. He will stay in that role till the election and try and fight it. And the election will be, I think, in 2029."

Disagreeing with Christopher, the Deputy Leader of Reform UK argued: "The analogy is, they're in the bunker and they are so deep in the bunker and they're now essentially sort of bumping off the people who are trying to protect them on the outside of the bunker.

"And it's out of touch, out of sight, disappearing off to Cop whatever number it is. The whole thing is absolutely chaos. And the truth is that all of his cabinet colleagues, well, a meaningful number of them are preparing their plans, they're sharpening the knives."

Grilled by Christopher on why we won't name the Labour MPs, he interjected: "That's twice now you've said it on GB News. For our viewers at home who don't follow politics, who are you talking about? Name them."

Mr Tice responded: "Trust me, just trust me. There is a lot going on. This is not a one day of madness, I can assure you, and everybody's despairing. The likelihood of this running all the all the way to 2029 is becoming more remote."