Delusional Starmer vows to be PM into the 2030s as he moans ‘loyal’ Labour MPs don’t speak up – but Rayner ‘prepares to strike’ with elections disaster looming

Keir Starmer has vowed to remain Prime Minister until the 2030s and faces another week of trial over the Mandelson scandal.

The Prime Minister insisted he would fight the next election and complained that the voices of ‘loyal’ Labor MPs were not being heard despite growing unrest within the party and the Cabinet.

The comments came as former top aide Morgan McSweeney presented potentially explosive evidence to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday. A key Commons vote could be held on the same day on whether Sir Keir should be referred to the privileges committee over allegations he misled Parliament.

Meanwhile, Labour’s anxiety is growing over upcoming local elections that look apocalyptic for councils in England, as well as the party in Scotland and Wales.

As Angela Rayner’s allies mobilize to ensure the results trigger a crisis, one MP told the Mail on Sunday that the ‘deadly stalemate’ cannot be allowed to continue. But the former deputy Prime Minister is still not thought to have resolved his row with HMRC over unpaid stamp duty.

The comments came as former top aide Morgan McSweeney presented potentially explosive evidence to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday.

As Angela Rayner’s allies mobilize to ensure the results trigger a crisis, one MP told the Mail on Sunday the “deadly stalemate” cannot be allowed to continue

Sir Keir also benefited from the fact that another possible successor, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, remains outside Parliament and cannot become a leadership candidate.

The Prime Minister attempted to fight back in an interview with the Sunday Times this weekend. Asked if he planned to contest the next election, expected in 2029, Sir Keir said: “Yes.”

He said: ‘We didn’t wait 14 years to be elected, we didn’t change the Labor Party, we didn’t do everything necessary to win the election and gain the mandate for change, not to deliver it.’

Sir Keir expressed his frustration at ongoing questions about his handling of the Mandelson situation and his decision to sack Foreign Office official Olly Robbins.

‘I answered, I don’t know how many there are,’ he said.

‘But I also have a lot of work to do in the war on two fronts.’

Sir Keir insisted the ‘vast majority’ of MPs wanted him to stay and ‘get on with the job’.

‘The people you never hear from are the people who are supportive, loyal and just want to get on with the job,’ he said.

‘And these are the vast majority of people in the Labor Party in parliament.

‘They are happy to be in power’ They waited a long time to come to power. And they just want to get on with their job. “They don’t make much noise about it,” he said.

Survation survey for grassroots site despite PM’s bullish comments The Labor List revealed 46 per cent think the party should change its leader, while 44 per cent want Sir Keir to stay.

Answering questions from broadcasters on behalf of the Government this morning Cabinet minister Darren Jones said Sir Keir ‘doesn’t have a case to answer’.

He stressed that it was up to the Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, to decide whether to proceed with a vote on such a move.

But Mr Jones told the BBC’s Sunday Morning with Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘You have to remember what these privilege committees mean? It was last used when Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that there was no party in Downing Street.

‘He was later shown to have been in five of them and received a fine from the police.

‘That’s what these processes are for, so the Opposition is simply using tactics to ignore the fact that the government has been doing good work in this pre-election period.’

When asked whether it would be right to conduct an investigation and clarify different interpretations of what happened, he said: “As far as I understand the incident, there is no case to answer.”

Mr Jones was also pressed about a ‘warm’ message Mandelson allegedly sent him on the day he was sacked as US ambassador last September.

The Minister said: ‘I was asked what was going on in Downing Street… and I replied: ‘I don’t know what happened. I’m not in the room. I am sad. ‘Everything seems so difficult.’

‘And I think that’s the change being referred to.’

Mr Jones added: ‘I can’t say it was hot and I didn’t know what was going on. ‘I felt at the time that it was difficult for everyone involved.’

Election guru Sir John Curtice has warned that Labor’s crackdown on May 7 could be on an ‘existential’ scale.

He told The Independent: ‘Labour is on 19 per cent in the opinion polls. They are running with half the support they received in 2022, when two-thirds of the seats were last contested. Starmer is very unpopular in the polls.

‘Labour and the Conservative Party are heading towards terrible consequences. ‘They can be bad, they can be very bad, and they can be existential.’

Labor Mayors are already preparing to blame the Government’s performance for the disastrous outcome.

Sir Keir also benefited from the fact that another potential successor, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (seen with the Prime Minister and Angela Rayner, right), remains out of Parliament and cannot become a leadership candidate.

Sadiq Khan told the Financial Times last week that he was ‘really frustrated’ with Mandelson’s ‘know-it-all’.

“I’m afraid that instead of saying to voters, ‘Listen, this is the difference a Labor mayor and a Labor council working with a Labor government can make’, people may decide to punish the government’s shortcomings,” he said.

Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said Sir Keir’s policy U-turns had ‘overshadowed the good things’.

Mr Jones said today: ‘I understand this is frustrating. I have been campaigning all over the country with my colleagues and I know how hard they are fighting in the by-elections and I know the May elections will be difficult for the party.

‘After a period of four or five years where the curve has gone up, you know, people know these are going to be challenging, and this last round of issues has made that a little bit more difficult.’