Labour can win the next general election, and MPs must rally behind Keir Starmer as the "best person" for the job, party chair Anna Turley has claimed.
Rally Cry Amidst Challenging Polls
Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, the Redcar MP issued a rally cry in the face of difficult polling ahead of the May elections next week. She pointed out that Tony Blair lost around 1,150 councillors in 1999, yet went on to win the 2001 general election.
Ms Turley urged her parliamentary colleagues to stay calm regardless of the local election results and to focus on delivering "further and faster" for the British people.
Confidence in Leadership
She said: "I 100% believe we can win the next general election. Look back at the 1997 election—there were challenges in 1999; Tony Blair lost a thousand councillors. It's easy at that moment to just look at polls that are a snapshot. People will judge this government on the entirety of its record when we get to the next general election. I absolutely know, and I can see it with every week and month that goes by, the difference that we're making to communities like mine."
Her comments come just days after a top election expert warned that Mr Starmer's Labour faces losing over 1,800 councillors in next week’s crunch local elections. The week has also seen rumours swirl over potential challenges to the Prime Minister, including from Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, and Angela Rayner.
Call for Unity
In a plea to rise above the noise, Ms Turley added: "Let's be resilient. Let's pull together as a team. We've got the best person that can be in the job. We've got a leader recognized internationally for what he's achieving. We've done so much, but we have so much to do. Let's not get distracted. Let's not keep looking at ourselves. Let's focus on the things that really matter to the people that we represent. Let's keep delivering on them, and let's go further and faster."
Attack on Reform UK
Making her pitch to voters, Ms Turley claimed next week’s election was a choice between a party on their side—Labour—and Reform UK, which she accused of spreading "hatred, division, and toxicity." She tore into Nigel Farage's party and suggested he broke the rules over failing to disclose a £5 million gift.
The Reform UK leader was given the sum by Thailand-based tycoon Christopher Harborne. Parliamentary rules state that new MPs have to declare political donations and gifts in the year before they enter Parliament.
Ms Turley said: "I am desperately worried because this is not a party that cares about ordinary working people. This is a party funded by global crypto millionaires. We've just seen another five million that Nigel Farage didn't even bother declaring. These are not people that are on the side of working people. This is a party funded by millionaires, run by rich blokes who have no interest in public services, which would bring an insurance system to the NHS. We see at a local level the chaos and the carnage that they bring to the local councils that they inherit. They don't care about things that matter to people. They're just interested in their own advancement. This is all about rich blokes looking after themselves."
