UK government bond yields rose to their highest levels in decades with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership hanging by a thread.

Disastrous local election results for Starmer’s Labour Party have led to 70 lawmakers — including members of his cabinet — calling for him to resign; populist parties on both left and right made huge gains.

Labour won a landslide less than two years ago, but instability is normal now, the BBC’s political editor wrote: By the time he was 27, the UK had had four prime ministers; there have been four in the past four years, and likely another soon. That instability is spooking investors, hence the high gilt yields, on top of Britain’s long-term lack of economic growth.