{"id":55831,"date":"2026-05-04T03:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/55831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T03:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:50:05","slug":"starmer-issues-extraordinary-warning-over-political-infighting-and-urges-rivals-not-to-oust-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/55831\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer issues extraordinary warning over \u2018political infighting\u2019 and urges rivals not to oust him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> has issued an extraordinary warning to Labour over \u201cpolitical infighting\u201d and urged his rivals not to try to oust him as speculation over his future as prime minister intensifies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Labour<\/a> leader called for unity as his party braces for what are expected to be disastrous election results across England, Scotland and Wales this week which could place his position in peril. <\/a><\/p>\n

He warned his party against repeating the mistake of the last Conservative government and \u201cdescending into political infighting\u201d. Three Conservative prime ministers were ousted by their own party between 2019 and 2022.<\/p>\n

As the row escalated, transport secretary Heidi Alexander hit out at those within her party who want a leadership contest, saying they should \u201cgive their heads a gentle wobble\u201d and that voters did not want the party to become a \u201cself-indulgent debating society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Labour<\/p>\n

Labour leader Keir Starmer, former deputy leader Angela Rayner and health secretary Wes Streeting (Getty)<\/p>\n

The PM\u2019s fightback follows reports that Andy Burnham<\/a>, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, is formulating a plan for a swift return to Westminster<\/a>, potentially \u201cwithin weeks\u201d, from where he could challenge Sir Keir, while others within Sir Keir\u2019s own cabinet have leadership campaigns ready to go.<\/p>\n

The Labour leader has been forced to spend much of the last month in the run-up to these elections battling the fallout from his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal.<\/p>\n

Labour is forecast to lose up to 1,850 council seats across England on Thursday, in what would be a bloodbath for the party, and rack up terrible results in its former fiefdoms of Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n

Mr Burnham has reportedly identified a path back to Westminster \u2013 and a possible challenge to Keir Starmer \u2013 after the PM and his allies previously blocked him, through a by-election where a sitting Labour MP would be prepared to step aside.<\/p>\n

He was dramatically prevented from standing for parliament earlier this year by Labour\u2019s powerful ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), but it is thought that would also no longer be a hurdle.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018This<\/p>\n

\u2018This government will reshape our nation,\u2019 says Keir Starmer (PA)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Angela Rayner, Sir Keir\u2019s former deputy, are thought to have the backing of more than 81 MPs, the threshold needed to trigger a leadership contest.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinary intervention just days before the elections, Sir Keir wrote in The Observer: \u201cWe have a choice. We could sink into the politics of grievance and division. Or we could rise to this moment \u2013 together \u2013 in a national effort that matches the scale of the threats and turbulence we face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am talking about a national mission to become a stronger, more resilient, and more united nation, allowing us to take control of our future, raise our sights, and reach towards something better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the nation rallied together to deal with Covid, the last government could have channelled that spirit to build a better nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut instead, they descended into political infighting and let the country slump back to the old status quo. Not this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThis government will reshape our nation. Over the coming weeks, through the King\u2019s Speech and beyond, we will set out our agenda of radical reform \u2013 with activist, interventionist government building a stronger and fairer country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doubling down on his plans to forge closer ties with Europe, the prime minister<\/a> said: \u201cRecovery depends on rebuilding the strength of our economy to make us more resilient to these kinds of shocks in future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means deepening our economic relationship with the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has changed since 2016. And Brexit today looks quite different. It has damaged our economy and there\u2019s no doubt in my mind where the national interest lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritain must be at the heart of a stronger Europe on defence, on security, on energy, and on our economy. I will be at the European Political Community summit today to take this forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer has issued an extraordinary warning to Labour over \u201cpolitical infighting\u201d and urged his rivals not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[28914,10412,33827,33829,264,4767,33828,33826,4766,10415],"class_list":{"0":"post-55831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-angela-rayner","10":"tag-conservative-government","11":"tag-health-secretary","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-labour-leader","14":"tag-leadership-contest","15":"tag-political-infighting","16":"tag-sir-keir","17":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116514273774488970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}