Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from senior ministers to dismiss whoever was behind anonymous briefings suggesting he could face a leadership challenge.
The controversy erupted after reports named Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as potential rivals to Starmer.
Both ministers have denied plotting against the prime minister and are now demanding that the source of the leaks be identified and sacked.
Starmer has since apologised to Streeting, saying he was incandescent over the briefings, which have deepened tensions inside No 10 and increased scrutiny on his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
Some within Labour blame McSweeney for fostering what they describe as a toxicculture of internal briefings.
Streeting dismissed speculation about McSweeney’s future, calling the row “silly Westminster soap opera stuff”.
Miliband, meanwhile, said it had been “a bad couple of days” for the government but expressed confidence Starmer would act if the culprit was identified.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of having “lost control of his government” and asked if he still had confidence in McSweeney.
The PM defended his team, saying: “I’ve never authorised attacks on cabinet members. Any such attacks are completely unacceptable.”
Downing Street later said the briefings had come from “outside No 10” and confirmed the prime minister’s full confidence in McSweeney, though it declined to say whether a formal leak inquiry was underway.
