Sir Keir Starmer has said he will lead Labour into the next general election, as he attempts to move on from his biggest leadership crisis yet.
The prime minister told broadcasters on Tuesday: “I had a five-year mandate to deliver the change. I intend to get on with what I was elected to do.”
Asked whether he would lead his party into the next election, scheduled for 2029, he said: “Yes, I will.”
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Despite his strong words, with his cabinet and Labour MPs having rallied round him, Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby said the prime minister remains in a “weak position”.
There have been growing doubts since last week about whether Sir Keir would stay in post – and for how long.
He faced the biggest challenge to his leadership yet on Monday as Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, called for him to resign following the scandal over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as his US ambassador.
In Sir Keir’s first remarks since, he joked at an event in Hertfordshire on Tuesday: “It’s been a busy week.”
He then largely repeated the message he gave his own MPs on Monday evening, saying he “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 added.
Addressing Labour infighting, he said his party needs to focus on improving living standards and public services, as well as battling what he described as Reform UK’s politics of “grievance”.
But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told Sky News that Labour MPs had given Sir Keir a “stay of execution, because they are terrified of losing their own jobs”.
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