Keir Starmer: I will never walk away from the country that I love

A defiant Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will “never walk away” after coming under pressure to quit as Prime Minister.

In his first public comments since Labour’s Scottish leader Anas Sarwar called for him to quit, Sir Keir hit out at infighting within the party and insisted he would lead it into the next general election.

Speaking at an event in Hertfordshire, the Prime Minister said the political “turmoil” would not stop him focusing on tackling cost-of-living pressures and improving opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

He said: “I am their Prime Minister, and this is their Government and I will never give up on that fight.

“There are some people in recent days who say the Labour Government should have a different part, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them.

“And I say to them: I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country.

“I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country that I love.”

Sir Keir said he had the “most working-class Cabinet” in history but it was “utter nonsense” to suggest that means everyone from a poorer background gets a fair chance in life.

He reflected on the difficulties faced by his brother as he set out why he was so determined to fight on in No 10.

Sir Keir’s younger brother Nick died aged 60 in 2024.

The Prime Minister said: “He had difficulties learning when he was growing up, he spent his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty.

“This system, this political system, didn’t work for him and there are billions of people in the same boat, children in poverty, young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve.

“Millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them, who are not given the dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve.

“And I’m fighting for them.”

Sir Keir had earlier chaired a political Cabinet meeting – without civil servants present – where he thanked ministers for their co-ordinated show of support in the wake of Mr Sarwar’s call for him to go.

Mr Sarwar is the most senior Labour figure to say the Prime Minister should step down, citing concern that the “distraction” from Downing Street would harm his party’s chances of unseating the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections.

Sir Keir said he had “huge respect” for Mr Sarwar and “I support him 100% without reservation” despite his call for the Prime Minister to resign.

The lack of support for Mr Sarwar’s position from ministers in Westminster suggests the immediate danger has passed, but Sir Keir’s authority remains fragile amid simmering discontent following the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband conceded the Prime Minister had faced a “moment of peril” on Monday, when he said Labour MPs “looked over the precipice” following Mr Sarwar’s intervention.

But in a series of broadcast interviews Mr Miliband said the country had not changed “enough” for the better under the Labour Government and that “the job for all of us is to work out how to be bolder”.

In Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan did not follow Mr Sarwar’s lead, insisting Sir Keir had her “full confidence”.