Starmer says put up or shut up
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Prime Minister is digging his heels in. Keir Starmer has told his cabinet that he is not going anywhere, despite a growing list of MPs calling for him to go.
At 9.30 a.m., Starmer was greeted by his senior ministers, many of whom now believe the game is up. So is this his ‘put up or shut up’ moment? Will anyone move today – and if they do, what happens next?
Tim Shipman and James Heale join Noa Hoffman to assess Starmer’s fight for survival, the mood inside Labour, and where we go from here.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.6 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Noah Hoffman, the spectator's political correspondent, |
| 0:40.6 | and I'm delighted to be joined on an incredibly dramatic day by political editor Tim Shippman |
| 0:47.0 | and Deputy Political Editor James Heel. Now, today is very fast moving, so I can only hope this |
| 0:53.3 | podcast isn't too out of date by the time it's in your ears. |
| 0:57.1 | But Tim, we've just had the cabinet meet. |
| 1:00.3 | More than 80 Labour MPs have called for Kier Stama to go. |
| 1:04.5 | What was his response to the top table? |
| 1:06.7 | Yeah, it's been a fascinating day. |
| 1:08.1 | So first of all, just before cabinet, that number ticked |
| 1:11.9 | over to 81, which is the number that someone needs to challenge the prime minister. So this |
| 1:16.2 | is coordinated, worked out, planned, and that's as, you know, they delivered that just as |
| 1:21.1 | the cabinet was going in. At the same moment, Miata van Bula, who is a disciple of Ed Miliband, |
| 1:27.1 | resigned, the first actual minister to |
| 1:29.1 | resign from the government. So this is, you know, putting as much pressure as possible on |
| 1:32.8 | Kirstama as he walked into that cabinet meeting. He sat down, he read out some thoughts, |
| 1:37.2 | and they basically were, I'm not going anywhere. There is a process. You will be delighted to know. |
... |
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