Keir Starmer will attempt to shore up his position as Prime Minister in a speech on Monday (11 May), following a damaging set of election results. Starmer will say that “incremental change won’t cut it” and will vow to “face up to” the challenges the country faces.
Over the weekend, Starmer came under increased pressure to resign from disgruntled members of his backbenches. Almost 40 Labour MPs have now publicly called on the Prime Minister to set a timetable for his departure. On Saturday, Catherine West, the MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, gave the Prime Minister until Monday to step down or she would launch her own leadership challenge. However, she appeared to soften that position on Sunday, suggesting in a BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg that she would decide after watching the Prime Minister’s speech.
This speech is part of Starmer’s pledge to set out the next steps in his plan to build a stronger and fairer Britain. The first measures taken by the Prime Minister on Saturday morning were to appoint Labour grandee Harriet Harman and former prime minister Gordon Brown as senior advisers. Harman was made Starmer’s Adviser on Women and Girls while Brown was made his Special Envoy on Global Finance.
In his speech, Starmer will pledge bolder action on growth, defence, Europe and energy, adding that the UK needs a “bigger response than we anticipated in 2024 because these are not ordinary times”. Focusing on Europe, Starmer will describe the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage and the Conservative Party as being “defined by breaking our relationship with Europe”. He will place his government as the polar opposite, adding: “This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship and by putting Britain at the heart of Europe.”
Tomorrow, the Prime Minister will face yet another moment of peril. West’s threat to trigger a leadership election continues to hang over him. Several Labour MPs told me privately that they think the extent of discontent within the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is so wide-reaching that she will get the backing of 80 MPs required to get on the ballot. The uncertainty has been bolstered by an intervention on Sunday evening by former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, who declared that the “government isn’t working”.
Will a speech which focuses on closer ties with Europe win over Starmer’s critics then? It’s doubtful. As West told the New Statesman, for many of her colleagues, the election losses were personal. In an interview with my colleague Ethan Croft, she revealed that she decided to act after a friend lost their previously safe seat on Friday. More than anything, these MPs want to see a tangible change in direction from the government, and reassurance that the devastating losses the party suffered this weekend will not happen again.
[Further reading: Keir Starmer must go]
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