Starmer Has Nowhere to Go, Stuck Between Rebels and Bond Market

Keir Starmer, right, and Rachel Reeves in London on July 3.Photographer: Jack Hill/AFP/Getty Images

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By Alex Wickham, Philip Aldrick, and Greg Ritchie

July 4, 2025 at 10:01 AM EDT

Updated on

July 5, 2025 at 1:00 AM EDT

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is caught between a political rebellion and a jittery bond market.

On one side is a big faction of his Labour Party that revolted in Parliament against his proposed welfare-spending cuts, derailing Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ push to steady the government’s finances. On the other, a cohort of fast-money global investors who are worried about rising government debt loads around the world and wield the power to send borrowing costs surging if their confidence is rattled.