Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “never walk away” as he fights back in his first public appearance since batting off calls to resign.
On Monday, the Prime Minister endured a tumultuous day in office when a number of his own backbenchers, as well as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, urged him to step down amid the Peter Mandelson scandal and the subsequent resignation of two senior aides.
However, Sir Keir survived the bruising day, with his Cabinet Ministers coming out in support of him in quick succession, including rumoured leadership rivals, Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting.
Today, speaking in Hertfordshire, Sir Keir told supporters: “There are some people in recent days who are saying this Labour Government should have a different fight – 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 am charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country I love.”
“And that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live-and-let-live country. A diverse country, where given half the chance we’ll help each other out.”
Instead, Sir Keir admitted the “real fight” ahead would be up against Nigel Farage and Reform UK, with the Local Elections looming over the Labour Party.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke to voters in Hertfordshire
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The PM declared: “The politics of Reform [is] the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance, that will tear our country apart.
“That is the fight that we are in and I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body.”
Opting to leave his suit jacket and tie at home, Sir Keir, with his white sleeves rolled up, pivoted his speech to make a pitch to Britain’s working class.
Addressing the small audience, he harked back to his own childhood and discussed his brother’s life, who died in 2024.
Sir Keir visited a community centre in Hertfordshire on Tuesday
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Sir Keir said: “I know what I’m fighting for and who I’m fighting for. I’ve got the most working-class Cabinet in the history of this country sitting round my Cabinet table and I’m really proud of that.”
He further added it was “utter nonsense” to say everyone gets a fair chance in life, reiterating his pride for his Cabinet and their “personal journeys and experiences”.
The PM continued: “I’m in that Cabinet as Prime Minister. Having come from a working-class background to be Prime Minister of this country. But that’s the exception, that is not the rule.
“Even within my own family, my brother, who died last year, he had difficulties learning when he was growing up. He spent his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty.
“This political system didn’t work for him and there are millions of people in the same boat.”
“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. I am their Prime Minister, and this is their Government and I will never give up on that fight.”
Just hours earlier, Mr Miliband strongly encouraged Labour to address the “class divide” across the nation, while Mayor of Greater Manchester – and previous leadership rival – Andy Burnham urged Labour to be more inclusive.
The Mayor told a Resolution Foundation conference: “To do that requires stability, and I make my own call for that today across the Labour Party.
“Of course, stability comes from greater unity, and that would be helped by a more inclusive way of running the party, but recent events makes that now feel possible.”
Mr Burnham launched a bid to run as Labour’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate on January 24 but was blocked by the party’s top brass by eight votes to one.
But today, the “King of the North” told reporters the PM had his “full support” amid the tumultous moment for the Labour leader – but failed to rule out a future leadership bid.
