historically poor election results<\/a>, including coming third in Wales and failing to make progress in Scotland, as well as losing more than 1,500 councillors across England, losing long-held councils such as Sunderland and Barnsley to Reform and previously safe London councils such as Lambeth and Hackney to the Greens.<\/p>\nStarmer said he was not prepared to resign because of the turmoil a leadership challenge would inflict on the country. \u201cI take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again, chaos that did lasting damage to this country,\u201d he said. \u201cA Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics, and some people are frustrated with me. I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister also admitted he believed Labour should not have begun its time in office with gloomy messaging. \u201cWe inherited a terrible legacy from the last government, economically, public services, the NHS on its knees, and what we found when we got into government was even worse that we feared.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd one of the mistakes I think we made was we wanted to level with the country about how bad things were, but we didn\u2019t convince people enough in that early period of the change that we would bring about why their lives would be better, and that\u2019s why we have to change that and inject much more hope and optimism into what we are saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer said he knew now that Labour needed \u201ca bigger response than we anticipated in 2024 because these are not ordinary times\u201d and that people needed to see a greater vision as well as delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not enough, clearly, for the British people. Tired of a status quo that has failed, change cannot come quickly enough,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure they believe that we see their lives. That\u2019s tough to say, when you come from a working-class background like me, it\u2019s hard to hear that, because I do know what it\u2019s like to struggle and to strive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer said he was announcing three immediate priorities:<\/p>\n
British Steel would be formally nationalised this week by legislation.<\/p>\n
A new, wide-ranging deal with the EU including an ambitious youth mobility scheme.<\/p>\n
A guaranteed offer of a job training or work placement for young people.<\/p>\n
Starmer attacked Farage\u2019s promises on Brexit, which he said had been proved false. \u201cHe said it would make us richer. Wrong. It made us poorer. He said it would reduce migration. Wrong. Migration went through the roof. He said it would make us more secure. Wrong again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made us weaker. He took Britain for a ride, and unlike the Tories, actually, [who] at least had to face up to it, he just fled the scene. And now he\u2019ll talk about almost anything other than the consequences of the one policy he actually delivered. Because he\u2019s not just a grifter, he is a chancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the EU summit in June would set \u201ca new direction for Britain \u2026 The last government was defined by breaking our relationship with Europe. This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by putting Britain at the heart of Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the right choice for Britain, that is the Labour choice. I want an ambitious youth experience scheme to be at the heart of our arrangement with the EU, so that our young people can work and study and live in Europe, a symbol of a stronger relationship and a fairer future with our closest allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the deal in June that Labour would seek would be \u201ca big leap forward \u2026 take us closer, both on trade, the economy, defence and security, and that will then be a platform on which we can build as we go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has said he will prove his doubters wrong as he warned Labour was facing \u201cvery dangerous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-579112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Starmer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778552000_861_1920.jpg\")
Starmer clings on amid Labour deadlock – The Latest <\/p>\n