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.
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. I am their Prime Minister, and this is their Government and I will never give up on that fight.”
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