Sir Keir Starmer has pleaded with Andy Burnham not to throw the country into “chaos” by launching a leadership challenge. The Prime Minister publicly addressed his position for the first time in a chat with ITV’s This Morning, where he insisted that he would not walk away from Number 10.
Starmer's Plea
Starmer said he understood voters’ frustrations with him, but urged the Greater Manchester mayor, who is hoping to win Thursday’s Makerfield by-election, to hold back on trying to steal his job. He said: “I don’t think we should have a challenge, because I think it’ll throw the country into chaos.”
“If there is a challenge, I will fight. I’m not going to walk away from this. We won a landslide victory just two years ago with a clear mandate to change the country, that’s a five-year mandate.”
Pressure on Premiership
Sir Keir’s premiership has been under pressure since Labour’s drubbing in May’s local and devolved elections. Former health secretary Wes Streeting and ex-armed forces minister Al Carns have also signalled they would run in any contest to replace the Labour leader.
But the PM said he wanted to deliver the change that people voted for in the 2024 Labour landslide. He added: “What we did was offer change. I always said that would take time.”
“Do I understand that people are frustrated and say ‘I haven’t seen enough change yet?’ Yes, of course I do. We need to complete on the work that we are doing, but... if you’ve waited best part of 20 years for your living standards to improve, you want that to happen more quickly. I completely understand that.”
Defence Row and Resignations
It follows a row over defence funding last week which saw defence secretary John Healey and armed forces minister Al Carns quit their roles. Labour MP Mr Carns said the defence investment plan (DIP) was not “transformative enough” and looked backward rather than forward.
The move led Labour MP Graham Stringer to claim Sir Keir is a “dead Prime Minister walking”. And a senior Labour adviser said: “This isn’t the beginning of the end, it has gone way beyond that.”
