The PM’s advisors have come up with a cunning scheme to avoid a leadership election next year.

Keir Starmer’s secret plan to try and avoid a leadership election has been revealed, as aides select a crucial date to pull off the scheme. The Prime Minister will confirm the next King’s Speech for May 12 or 13, just one week after the nationwide local elections.

Advisors in No. 10 believe that having the King unveil the government’s agenda for the coming year so soon after the local elections will force plotters to back down. It’s widely expected that Labour is set for a disastrous set of elections next May, as voters whose polls have not been delayed have their say on the first two years of the Labour government. The votes will take place across England’s council areas, including a swathe of inner cities like Birmingham and London where Labour stand to lose hundreds of politicians.

They’ll also take place in the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, with polls suggesting Labour has collapsed in popularity at the hands of Reform UK and nationalist parties like the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

Amid widespread belief that anti-Starmer plotters may launch a coup in the wake of the disastrous May polls, Downing Street reportedly hopes that holding the King’s speech swiftly afterwards will force MPs to back down.

According to the BBC, one government source argued: “It will be much harder for somebody to challenge the PM and say we need to go in a different direction when the King is about to come to parliament to announce what we’re doing for the next year.”

Others denied that there is any connection between the planned timing of the King’s Speech and the local elections.

The King’s Speech is the most glamorous moment in the annual parliamentary calendar, steeped in history, ceremony and tradition.

Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner both want the top job (Image: Getty)

While it’s called the ‘King’s Speech’, it is actually written for him by the government of the day, and sets out all the Bills that will be coming forward during the following parliamentary session.

The King or Queen arrives in a horse-drawn carriage alongside their partner, in this case Queen Camilla.

It involves a number of famous scenes, including Lords decked in their red and white ermine cloaks, and ‘Black Rod’ being sent to bang on the door of the House of Commons and summon MPs to hear the speech.

This year’s session of parliament has run for longer than a year, having begun following the general election.

They are often held following the May elections.