{"id":66528,"date":"2026-05-11T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/66528\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:11","slug":"i-will-prove-doubters-wrong-vows-starmer-as-he-resists-calls-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/66528\/","title":{"rendered":"I will prove doubters wrong, vows Starmer as he resists calls to quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer <\/a>vowed to prove his doubters wrong on Monday as he clung to power despite growing calls from Labour MPs for him to quit.<\/a><\/p>\n

A make or break speech in central London<\/a> was met with cheers from his audience in the room but failed to impress furious backbencher still reeling from last week\u2019s historically poor election results.<\/p>\n

But more than 60 Labour MPs from all wings of the party called on the prime minister to go<\/a> immediately or set a timetable for his departure and there was growing speculation that health secretary Wes Streeting was about to launch a coup.<\/p>\n

A number of supporters of Mr Streeting joined the growing list of MPs calling for the PM to quit including Chris Curtis, chair of the growth group; and MPs Josh Simons, Jas Athwal, Sally Jamieson and Tom Rutland. There were also unconfirmed reports that Mr Streeting\u2019s parliamentary private secretary Joe Morris had resigned from the government.<\/p>\n

Allies of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner were also preparing for their own leadership bid with an expectation that Mr Streeting would announce on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister made a speech in central London on Monday (James Manning\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

One Labour source said: \u201cThings are going to kick off tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a defiant message to his critics, Sir Keir said: \u201cI get it, I feel it, and I take responsibility. I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the challenges posed by from Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK and Zack Polanski\u2019s Green Party, both of which took hundreds of seats from Labour at the local elections, Sir Keir urged his party to get behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation, and I want to be crystal clear about how we will win it, because we cannot win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can only win as a stronger version of Labour, a mainstream party of power not protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned on Mr Farage\u2019s \u201cfalse promises\u201d over Brexit and described the Reform UK leader as \u201ca grifter and a chancer\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also vowed to take on the far right, and announced he had banned foreign influencers from joining Tommy Robinson\u2019s march at the weekend.<\/p>\n

But while he was cheered in the crowded room of the Coin Community Centre in the City of London, his message failed to impress the wider audience outside.<\/p>\n

There was concern that he dodged a question over whether he would try to block the return of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to parliament again with support growing for him to replace Sir Keir.<\/p>\n

But in a minor boost, potential stalking horse candidate Catherine West, who had previously said she would challenge Sir Keir for the party leadership as early as Monday afternoon in an attempt to force the Cabinet to put forward a replacement as prime minister, pulled back from initiating an immediate challenge.<\/p>\n

Speaking after Sir Keir\u2019s speech, which she described as \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d, the former Foreign Office minister said she would now canvass support within the party for the prime minister setting out a timetable for his resignation by September.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine West pulled back from launching a leadership challenge (Theo Shaw\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

MPs noted that allies of health secretary Wes Streeting \u2013 notably Chris Curtis from the rightwing pro-growth group \u2013 had joined leftwing rebels in demanding the PM stands down.<\/p>\n

Many of the leading candidates, including Mr Streeting and energy secretary Ed Miliband, remained silent in the wake of the prime minister\u2019s speech, but former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner reiterated calls first made on Sunday for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, himself a favourite to take over from Sir Keir, to return to Westminster.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile a number of MPs said they were disappointed by Sir Keir\u2019s speech, which included very little policy detail. There was a vague promise to put the UK back at the heart of Europe but no details of how this would happen or if it meant undoing Brexit and setting a path to rejoin.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir did confirm that British Steel would be nationalised but did not follow this up with a new economic policy either promising the growth desired by the right of the party or the nationalisation demanded by the left.<\/p>\n

\"Eyes<\/p>\n

Eyes are on health secretary Wes Streeting to see if he launches a challenge (PA)<\/p>\n

Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell said: \u201cIt\u2019s become clear that it is time for a new leader to take us to the finishing line of this term and on to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her city saw a wipeout for Labour councillors as Reform took control.<\/p>\n

Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, another previous loyalist, wrote supporting a leadership contest.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI have nothing but respect for Sir Keir Starmer. He transformed our party and led us to an election victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut sadly it is clear now that to deliver on our promise of change and to secure Britain\u2019s future, we must look to a new leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some Starmer loyalists hit back at Ms West\u2019s attempts to gather signatures to initiate a leadership election.<\/p>\n

Banbury MP Sean Woodcock shared his email response to Ms West, in which he asked her to \u201cplease stop\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a wholly unserious way of going about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I too had disappointing results in my seat and would describe myself far from happy at where we find ourselves, this is not how the government of a major economy and nuclear power should be decided\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer vowed to prove his doubters wrong on Monday as he clung to power despite growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[10412,38872,33582,33829,264,12058,17785,381,4766,10415],"class_list":{"0":"post-66528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-keir-starmer","8":"tag-angela-rayner","9":"tag-chris-curtis","10":"tag-deputy-prime-minister","11":"tag-health-secretary","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-labour-mps","14":"tag-pa","15":"tag-prime-minister","16":"tag-sir-keir","17":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116557181259671811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66528","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=66528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}