Sir Keir Starmer has addressed the elephant in the room of his rumoured resignation in the wake of a local election bloodbath. Sky's Beth Rigby told Starmer on Friday, May 8, that a member of his 'top team' had messaged her to say that Starmer was the problem for Labour. The insider also said that if he stayed they risked handing the country to Reform UK.
Asked what he would say to people who thought that, Starmer replied: 'What I say to that is we won a landslide victory in July 2024. I led our party to that victory. That is a five year mandate to change the country. Yes, there are difficult conditions. The inheritance was terrible. The international context is very, very difficult. But we need to inject that hope and convince people that things can and will get better.'
Labour's Losses in Local Elections
Starmer's party lost all 20 seats it was defending in one council area alone – Wigan – but the party's huge majority before the election meant it retained control of the town hall. Labour had lost 205 council seats before breakfast this morning as just over 40 election results were declared overnight, while the Conservative Party have lost 90.
Starmer's Response to Critics
Starmer continued: 'And that's why in coming days, I'll set out the further steps that we will take.' Asked if he would stand as PM at the next election, Starmer replied: 'Yes. There's a five-year term I was elected to do. I intend to see that through.' Starmer said: 'The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved. They were elected to meet those challenges. And I'm not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.'
Starmer replied: 'They've sent a message that the change that we promised isn't being delivered in a way they can feel. And also, frankly, they're fed up with years of the status quo. But we were elected to deal with those challenges, and I'm not going to walk away from that.'
Rigby asked: 'To be clear, you are not going to resign?' Starmer replied: 'No. I'm not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos. We were elected to deal with these challenges and that's what we will do.'
