Keir Starmer gave a speech to try to defend his position as prime minister on Monday morning (Alamy)
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer has attempted to shore up his leadership of the Labour Party and of the country by saying Labour needs to go beyond just “incremental change” and be the party of a “stronger and fairer” Britain.
The Prime Minister is attempting to see off potential leadership challenges following Thursday’s local election results, which saw Labour lose the Senedd in Wales for the first time, fail to make inroads against the SNP in Scotland, and lose around 1,500 seats on local councils in England.
In a speech in London on Monday morning, he admitted that “like every government, we’ve made mistakes”, but insisted “we got the big political choices right”. It was a speech that was passionate, but lacking in policy meat on the bone.
What is the Labour Party for?
Starmer attacked both Reform and the Green Party, arguing that only Labour can “face up to the big challenges” and “make the big arguments”.
“Delivery is, of course, essential, but it’s not sufficient on its own to address the frustration that voters feel, with battling Reform and the Greens, but at a deeper level, with battling the despair on which they prey, despair that they exploit and amplify,” he said.
“And so analysis matters, but argument matters more. Evidence matters, but so too does the emotion. Stories beat spreadsheets. People need hope.”
He went on to say that the Labour Party would not be able to win going forwards as a “weaker version of Reform or the Greens”.
“We can only win as a stronger version of Labour… I will never stop fighting for the decent, respectful, diverse country that I love.”
The status quo is not enough
He appeared to argue for railing against the status quo in government, but did not set out any major new policies.
“Incremental change won’t cut it on growth, defence, Europe, energy,” he said.
“We need a bigger response than we anticipated in 2024 because these are not ordinary times, and this is a political challenge, just as much as it’s a party challenge.”
By way of hard policy, however, there was very little: the one major announcement was that legislation would be brought forward this week to give the government powers to take “full ownership of British Steel”, subject to a public-interest test.
Starmer described this as an example of a policy which will “show the Labour values we will be guided from, and the lessons we will learn”.
He said the government would also go “much further on our investment” in apprenticeships in technical excellence colleges and special educational needs.
Starmer has come under criticism by his own MPs for not spearheading the change that was promised to voters in the 2024 general election.
Senior Labour MP Sarah Owen told The Times over the weekend: “Unless Keir Starmer delivers tangible change and truly connects with the public on a human level, he can’t lead us into another election (locally or nationally). People want politics and politicians who are upfront and true to their values.”
Closer ties with Europe at the heart of the “Labour choice”
Starmer also set out a closer relationship with Europe as being at the heart of the “Labour choice” going forward.
“This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by having Britain at the heart of Europe, standing shoulder to shoulder with the countries that most share our interests, our values and our enemies,” he said.
“That is the right choice for Britain. That is the Labour choice.”
However, asked whether the next Labour manifesto would include single market or customs union membership, Starmer simply said the UK will take a “big leap forward with the EU-UK summit this year and take us closer, both on trade and the economy, and defence and security.
“That will then be a platform on which we can build as we go forward,” he said.
Change in leadership would be too “damaging”
Addressing Thursday’s elections, the PM said Labour’s losses “hurt”: “I get it, I feel it”.
But many Labour MPs are already concerned that the speech listed the government’s achievements again and did little to shift the dial on either Starmer’s own leadership or the public perception of the Labour government.
Backbench Labour MP and former minister Catherine West has said she could try to launch her own leadership bid if no cabinet minister steps forward to challenge Starmer.
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has told Starmer that “what we are doing isn’t working”, calling for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to return to Parliament. Indeed, perhaps the most significant moment of Starmer’s speech came when he said that Burnham’s return would be a matter for the party’s National Executive Committee, rather than closing the door on him entirely.
Starmer had already insisted he will not step down as PM, and in his speech on Monday, he said he did not want to “plunge the country into chaos”.
“I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I’ve got some doubters, including in my own part,” he said.
“And I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I have to prove them wrong, and I will.”
In what was likely an appeal to his own MPs, he said that the government constantly changing their leadership was “damaging”.
“We tested it, we tested its destruction, and it inflicted huge damage on this country,” he said, in a reference to the changing of leaders under previous Conservative governments.
“A Labour government will never be forgiven if we repeat that and inflict that on the country.”
Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell sat on the front row during Starmer’s speech, with one of the PM’s PPSs Jon Pearce sitting on the row behind.
Labour MP for Ossett and Denby Dale Jade Botterill introduced Starmer on the stage, saying that it was clear to her that the Labour Party “is one of the greatest vehicles for changing the lives of working people this country has ever known”
“But yet, on the doorstep, people no longer believed it.”
