Keir Starmer insists he will lead Labour into next general election
Sir Keir Starmer has defiantly vowed to lead Labor at the next general election after his party was mired in a leadership and briefing scandal.
The Prime Minister criticized speculation about his future as a waste of time and insisted his focus remained on reducing the cost of life crisis and helping British families.
When asked if he would lead Labor at the next election he said: Mirror: “Yes, I will. Let me be really clear: every minute not spent talking and dealing with the cost of living is a minute wasted in terms of the political work of this Government.
“That’s my response to the past week. I’m focused on what’s most important to me, which is lowering the cost of living and making people feel better.”
The bitter briefing war that erupted last Tuesday night has prompted the prime minister’s allies to insist he is willing to fight any challenge to his leadership.
Health Minister Wes Streeting has been named as the challenger amid warnings that the Prime Minister’s ouster would lead to market chaos.
It comes as the Government grapples with its own Labor MPs, who are concerned about ministers’ approach to many issues and the party’s current choices.
Reports of public infighting and a “toxic” culture in Downing Street also come ahead of Shabana Mahmood’s crackdown on asylum seekers on Monday and Rachel Reeves’ tough Budget next week.
On Sunday the home secretary said the anonymous briefings were “disgraceful” for everyone involved.
Asked if the Prime Minister needed to rethink his leadership, he said: “No. Keir Starmer is our Prime Minister. We won an election less than a year and a half ago when people thought we might not win one for perhaps a generation or more.”
“I don’t have time for that kind of stuff that people say or brief off the record or, frankly, Westminster gossip.”
Ms Mahmood added: “If people have something to say they should have the courage to put their beliefs out there and say it publicly, but that’s not what’s happening.
“I think what happened earlier this week, with all these anonymous briefings, was very uneducational and extremely embarrassing for everyone involved.”
In an interview with The Mirror, Starmer insisted Labor was not trying to overcome Nigel Farage’s “toxic” stance on immigration; because Mahmood was facing increasing reaction from those in the background.
“Reform has no answer to the challenges and problems facing this country,” he said. “They thrive on grievance. They want the problems to continue and they are driven by a toxic division that will tear our country apart. So I’m really clear, there are two paths for our country.
Defending the plans, he said: “Patriotic national renewal with the Labor Party and Labor Government is about reducing the cost of living and taking measures that will actually change the lives of millions of families, doing the hard work of governance or the poisonous apportionment of the Reformation and so on.”
“This route is based on complaints, they have no serious answers and it is absolutely important that we expose them for what they are: snake oil salesmen.”
