The Latest: UK's Starmer meets prospective leadership rival ahead of King's Speech

Audio By Carbonatix

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III will present the U.K. government's legislative program to Parliament on Wednesday as uncertainty clouds the future of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's leadership. Starmer on Tuesday defied calls for him to stand down, following a disastrous showing for his Labour Party in local and regional elections last week. Ahead of the King's Speech, he met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as one of his potential challengers, at his office in Downing Street.

Here's the latest:

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have arrived at the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Standard has been raised.

Starmer and his wife, Victoria, left their official residence under a pelting of rain and pointed questions from the media as they headed to Parliament for the king’s speech.

The Starmers had no umbrellas as they left 10 Downing Street and walked a short distance to a waiting car.

Perhaps more unpleasant, though, were the questions coming from across the street.

“Will you resign Mr. Starmer? Are you just squatting in No. 10?,” a man yelled from the area where journalists gathered. “Prime minister, is your time up? Have you lost the country, Mr. Starmer?”

The Crown Regalia – the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State – has arrived at the House of Lords ahead of the king’s speech.

The ancient symbols of royal authority come in their own carriage, Queen Alexandra’s State Coach,

The most famous symbol of the monarchy, the Imperial State Crown, will be worn by King Charles III during the state opening ceremony.

It contains 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, five rubies and more than 270 pearls, and weighs more than a kilogram.

Unions affiliated with the Labour Party called for a plan to be put in place to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Trade Union and Labour Organisation, a group of 11 unions, said the party could not “continue on its current path.”

“It’s clear that the prime minister will not lead Labour into the next election, and at some stage a plan will have to be put in place for the election of a new leader,” the group said.

The King’s Speech dates back to at least the 15th century, and the traditions highlight that history.

The first event got underway early Wednesday when the Yeomen of the Guard — a group of ceremonial bodyguards who still wear traditional red and gold uniforms from the Tudor period — performed a symbolic “search” of the Houses of Parliament for explosives. The tradition is a reminder of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in which Roman Catholic rebels tried to kill Protestant King James I by blowing up the building during the State Opening of Parliament.

The king will travel in a carriage, as one might expect. A separate coach carries the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance and Sword of State.

Meanwhile, a lawmaker goes to the palace as a symbolic hostage to ensure the king’s safe return. It is said the hostage is treated like royalty.

Starmer met privately Wednesday with a cabinet member who could challenge him for the leadership of the Labour Party.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting met for less than 20 minutes with Starmer at his 10 Downing Street residence.

Streeting is considered one of the top rivals as Starmer resists calls to step aside after the party’s disastrous showing in last week’s local elections across the U.K.

Streeting did not speak with reporters as he left the meeting.

The monarch traditionally travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament, a distance of less than a mile, in a horse-drawn carriage. He then dons the Imperial State Crown and the robe of state before leading a procession into the chamber of the unelected House of Lords.

A Lords official called Black Rod, named for the ebony rod he or she carries, then goes to the House of Commons to summon the chamber’s members to a joint sitting of Parliament. The doors to the Commons chamber are slammed in Black Rod’s face to symbolize the chamber’s independence from the monarchy, and they aren’t opened until Black Rod strikes the doors three times.

Once members of the Commons have crowded into the Lords’ chamber, the king delivers a speech written by the government and laying out its legislative program for the coming session of Parliament.

After the speech is read and the king leaves, the two houses of Parliament begin several days of debate on its contents.

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week’s elections but would fight on.

As Cabinet members left 10 Downing Street, some voiced their support for the embattled prime minister.

Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said nobody publicly challenged Starmer at the meeting, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the prime minister was showing “really steadfast leadership.”

Later, Starmer’s deputy David Lammy warned Labour lawmakers that the only beneficiary of the party’s “navel-gazing” is the populist right and the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, in particular.

“He has my full support, and what I say to colleagues is, look, let’s just step back,” he said. “Take a breath.”

On Tuesday, several junior ministers, some of whom were elected for the first time in Labour’s landslide election victory in July 2024, resigned and urged Starmer to do the same.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister of housing, communities and local government, was the first to quit, urging Starmer “to do the right thing for the country.”

She was followed by Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister and a prominent member of the Labour Party. In her resignation letter, she described Starmer as a “good man fundamentally” but unable to make bold changes.

Despite the party’s dominant win driving out the Conservatives after 14 years in power, Labour’s popularity has plunged and Starmer is getting much of the blame.

The reasons include a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister’s part, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgment. Starmer’s choice of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington despite ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has continued to haunt him.

Starmer insisted Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning as calls grew louder within his Labour Party for him to step down and some junior members of his government quit in protest.

Starmer’s future has become a hot topic over the past few feverish days following historic losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election that has to be held by 2029, would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.

Though no Cabinet member has quit or publicly stated the prime minister should step aside for a change in leader, there’s growing speculation that the ambitious health secretary, Wes Streeting, will inform Starmer that his days are numbered when they meet on Wednesday.

Streeting has many supporters within the parliamentary party, including some of those who resigned from Starmer’s government on Tuesday, which stoked speculation that Starmer could suffer the fate of Boris Johnson in 2022 when dozens of ministers quit en masse and forced his departure.

The King’s Speech is part of the state opening of Parliament, a traditional set piece of the political calendar. Many of the expected proposals have been announced previously, raising questions over Starmer’s capacity to win over his doubters.

The speech is expected to include proposals to address the cost of living crisis, create a national wealth fund to stimulate private investment in public infrastructure and tighten rules for asylum seekers.

It may also include the government’s controversial proposal to abolish jury trials for some cases in England and Wales, lower the voting age to 16 and introduce a “duty of candor” for public officials, requiring them to tell the truth and cooperate with investigations.