Keir Starmer has issued a rallying cry to voters, urging them to choose "unity over division" ahead of a high-stakes set of local elections. The Prime Minister said the country must face the huge challenges left by austerity, the Covid pandemic, Brexit, and Liz Truss's calamitous mini-budget, coupled with the impact of the war in Iran, by standing together.
Writing in the Mirror, he appealed to the public to choose progress towards a better future over the "politics of anger" at the ballot box on Thursday. Mr Starmer said Labour's rivals had proven they cannot meet this moment, after Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage rushed to back Donald Trump's war in the Middle East. He also lashed out at Green Party leader Zack Polanski for pushing to quit Nato and sharing a social media post criticising the police response to the antisemitic terror attack in Golders Green.
It comes as millions of people prepare to head to the polls across England, Wales, and Scotland in the Labour Government's biggest electoral test since its landslide win in 2024. Pollsters have delivered doom-laden predictions that Labour could shed hundreds of councillors in England, lose control in Wales, and fall well short of victory in Scotland, in a nightmare set of results less than two years on from the general election.
But Mr Starmer has come out fighting as he promised voters there was more to do to fix the mess left behind by the Tories. In an article for the Mirror, the Prime Minister said: "Politics is about choices. The choices that affect you and your family. On Thursday, when you go to put your vote in the ballot box, there's a clear choice on that piece of paper. Unity or division. Progress versus the politics of anger. The right plan for our country up against easy answers that will lead us nowhere."
He added: "Farage, Badenoch and Polanski have proven they cannot meet this moment. But my Labour Government is."
The fallout from the elections could be make-or-break for the Prime Minister as speculation swirls over whether he could face a leadership challenge. Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are tipped as contenders for the keys to No10 but neither appear keen to wield the knife. Andy Burnham has made little secret of his leadership ambitions but he is not an MP, barring him from standing in a leadership contest.
The PM's allies are ramping up efforts to see off a plot if Labour tensions erupt in the aftermath of the local elections. Communities Secretary Steve Reed, a staunch ally of the PM, urged MPs against Tory-style "doom-scrolling" through leaders if Labour suffers a hammering at the polls. Many MPs are "sick and tired of all this psychodrama," he said.
He added: "The whole notion that we would copy the Conservatives and go doom-scrolling through leaders in a way that means the government is completely incapable of dealing with the things that matter the most to the British public is an absolute nonsense. And I'm not going to engage in it, and most of our MPs would not engage in it either."
A group of angry backbenchers is said to be plotting to break ranks and call for his resignation in an open letter in the aftermath. But Tom Watson, who was involved in a similar plot to oust Tony Blair, warned it was a mistake that risked damaging Labour and handing ammunition to its opponents. He wrote on his Substack: "If Labour has lost support to Reform, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, the solution cannot simply be a different name on the door. The party has to listen harder, think deeper and recover its political purpose."
So, with the greatest respect to any colleague tempted by this course: that was then and this is now. Do not do it. Really, do not. If I had my time again, I would not have signed the letter in 2006.
