It was Starmer’s ‘make or break’ speech. The verdict of 70 of his own MPs? Break

Keir Starmer’s ‘start or end’ battle speech appeared to fail last night amid an avalanche of calls for him to resign.

The embattled Prime Minister tried to prevent a coup by warning that it would plunge Britain into ‘chaos’.

But the intervention appeared to have failed yesterday as the long list of Labor MPs urging him to consider his position grew to more than 70 last night.

In his speech to party activists, Sir Keir insisted he would not ‘walk away’ even if he faced a leadership challenge this week.

He warned that a contest now would risk ‘plunging our country into chaos, as the Conservatives have done time and time again – chaos that does lasting damage to this country’.

He said the Labor Party ‘will never be forgiven for inflicting this on our country again’.

However, the Labor Party criticized the Prime Minister and said that the speech did not convince them.

Maverick backbencher Catherine West said the conversation was ‘too little, too late’.

Ms West walked back the threat to launch an immediate leadership challenge but called on MPs to sign a letter calling for the Prime Minister to set a timetable for his resignation.

Last week’s local election disaster caused Labor to lose 1,500 councilors and 38 councils in England, and come third in Wales and Scotland. Labor MPs reported that voters were taking their anger out on Sir Keir personally, with one of them saying he was “hated on the doorstep”.

The Prime Minister admitted voters were ‘disappointed’ in him but insisted he could win them over.

‘I know people are disappointed with the state of Britain, disappointed with politics and some people disappointed with me.

‘I know I have my doubts and I know I have to prove them wrong and I will do that.’

Culture Minister Lisa Nandy, who went on airs to defend the Prime Minister, said he was right to “admit the mistakes he made and the personal hostility towards him”.

But when asked if he had done enough to save his life, he told Sky News: ‘No, it’s not enough to go out and make a speech, but it’s absolutely the right thing to do at the moment; ‘To come out and admit the mistakes that were made, to admit the role that he personally played in it.’

Sir Keir announced a raft of new measures, including legislation to nationalize British Steel, a ban on ‘far-right agitators’ coming to the UK for a planned march on Saturday and a plan to put Britain at the ‘heart of Europe’.

But he stopped short of announcing the kind of radical change many Labor MPs are demanding, suggesting it would be a mistake to change course after the ‘tough’ election results.

He described the current political moment as a ‘battle for the soul’ of the UK and warned that if Labor failed the country would go down a ‘very dark path’.

Maverick backbencher Catherine West says talk is ‘too little, too late’

Sir Keir said: ‘This is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation and I want to be very clear about how we win it because we cannot win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens.

‘We can win not by protesting, but by being a stronger version of the mainstream ruling party, Labour.’

Sir Keir said Nigel Farage and Zack Polanski lacked the ‘serious progressive leadership these times require’. He said Mr Farage was ‘not just a fraud, but an opportunist’ who was leading the country into a failed Brexit.

The Prime Minister said the Government would take a ‘major step’ towards the European Union but struggled to explain what this meant in practice.

Sir Keir has so far stuck to Labour’s 2024 election promise that Britain will not rejoin the single market or customs union or return to free movement. But when asked if he was ruling out the party’s next manifesto campaign to return to the European Union, he could not.

Instead he replied: ‘What I want to do is take a big step with the EU-UK summit this year and bring us closer together on trade, economy, defense and security. And that will be a platform that we can build on as we move forward.’

His spokesman later added that the so-called red lines on Brexit only apply until the general election and that ‘the next manifesto is a matter for the party’.

In his speech, Sir Keir also promised to agree an ‘ambitious’ youth experience plan with Brussels, while claiming Brexit was ‘taking away’ young people’s ability to work, study and live in Europe.

Afterwards, leading pro-EU Labor MP Stella Creasy urged him to remove his red lines on Brexit, saying: ‘They need to go now and be seen to go, otherwise it’s a waste of time.’

But others warned that this would only see more Red Wall voters turning to Reform, and influential Labor peer Lord Glasman said: ‘The alienation of working-class voters from Labor will certainly not be solved by a talk of realignment with the EU. ‘I can’t imagine anything worse.’

Immediately following the speech, a handful of supporters spoke in support of the Prime Minister; Macclesfield MP Tim Roca and Gedling’s Michael Payne said Sir Keir showed he understood the ‘scale of the challenge’ facing the country.

However, many people continued to call for his resignation.

Northumberland MP David Smith, who has been the UK’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief since 2024, said Labor owed a ‘debt of gratitude’ to Sir Keir but ‘cannot continue the approach I have taken’ since the General Election.