Politics Home Article | Keir Starmer To Say “People Need Hope” As Calls For Resignation Grow

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a key speech tomorrow as he fights for his political survival amid growing calls from Labour MPs for his resignation. (Alamy)

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Starmer, in what is likely to be one of the most important speeches of his political career, is expected to say “people need hope” – and that his government “will face up to the big challenges” and “will make the big arguments”, conceding “incremental change won’t cut it”. 

At the heart of the speech will be Starmer’s bid to reset relations with the European Union, “by putting Britain at the heart of Europe” so that the UK is “stronger on the economy, on trade, on defence”. 

Starmer is also expected to say a closer relationship with the EU will mean “standing shoulder to shoulder with the countries that most share our interests, our values and our enemies”. 

However, despite Starmer’s hope for a better future on Monday, as well as his expected focus on “Labour values and Labour policies” to reconnect with the public, the speech will inevitably see the Prime Minister talk as much to his own party as to the public as he fights for his own political survival. 

A devastating set of local election results for Labour, which saw the party lose the Senedd in Wales for the first time, as well as around 1,500 seats,  means his speech will be delivered at the start of a challenging week – after a weekend which saw a growing number of Labour MPs express their desire for the Prime Minister to stand down. 

Backbench Labour MP Catherine West on Saturday said she would challenge the Prime Minister on Monday if a cabinet minister did not do so, warning she had 10 MPs that would back her to do so. 

“My preferred option is for the cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent, and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role,” she told BBC Radio 4.

Labour MP Josh Simons, former boss of Labour Together, former Treasury minister and influential backbench MP also called on the Prime Minister to resign – writing in The Times on Sunday that Starmer “lost the country” and  did not believe “the prime minister can rise to this moment”. 

Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister and Labour deputy leader, Labour MP Angela Rayner stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign on Sunday – but criticised the direction of Labour’s government, warning what Labour had done so far “isn’t working” and that it may be the party’s “last chance” with the public.

Rayner said the party blocking Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham from standing as an MP “was a mistake”, alongside appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and the party’s early attempt in government to cut Winter Fuel Allowance. 

In his speech on Monday, Starmer is also expected to say the party will need to give a “bigger response than we anticipated in 2024 because these are not ordinary times”, as he attempts to persuade Labour MPs that Labour election losses were not a signal of terminal decline. 

“Strength through fairness. It’s a core Labour argument,” Starmer will say. 

“And you will see those values writ large in the King’s Speech. And you will see hope, urgency and exactly whose side we are on.”

The speech will also come after Starmer announced the appointment of former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a special envoy, as well as senior Labour peer Harriet Harman as an adviser against tackling women and girls in the aftermath of Thursday’s election results.

The move, like Starmer’s expected speech on Monday, has been widely recieved as an attempt to signal to mutinous Labour MPs the government is taking a change of direction.