Health secretary Wes Streeting has resigned from the cabinet and is expected to force a Labour leadership contest, as Sir Keir Starmer fights to save his increasingly-threatened premiership .

The Independent first revealed on Monday that Mr Streeting was expected to launch a leadership bid as his supporters led the way in urging the prime minister to step aside after a bruising set of local election results.

The prime minister said he took responsibility for the results, which saw the Labour Party lose almost 1,500 councillor seats , but insisted he would not walk away.

The elections were widely touted as judgement day for Sir Keir and he was hit by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK snatching councils, some of which had been held by Labour for generations, in northern England, while Zack Polanski’s Green Party lured voters away from him in former urban strongholds, including taking control of some London authorities.

On Monday, Sir Keir gave a make-or-break speech intended to avert any leadership challenge and…