Keir Starmer has warned senior ministers and officials to stop briefing against one another and leaking details of the budget as he pleaded for his embattled government to unite.

The prime minister told his weekly cabinet meeting that last week’s political turmoil had distracted from voters’ priorities, and ministers needed to work together and start delivering rather than talking about the government itself.

His warning came after a turbulent week during which his government was engulfed by accusations of briefing against the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and reports of a major pre-budget U-turn.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Tuesday: “He said distractions meant our focus shifted from where it mattered most, working every day in the service of the British people.

“The prime minister said next week’s budget would prioritise rebuilding the economy, showing what the government stands for. [He] said people were rightly impatient for change, and we had to deliver that rather than talk about ourselves.

“That meant working as one team, delivering opportunity and security and delivering on our mandate.”

The comments form the second part of a fightback by Starmer after one of the most difficult weeks of his premiership, which was consumed by stories about infighting and budget leaks rather than NHS changes and new rights for renters.

The first part came on Tuesday morning, when the Mirror published an interview with the prime minister in which he promised to fight the next election as Labour leader, despite growing speculation about his political future.

He told the newspaper: “Let me be really clear – every minute that’s not spent talking about and dealing with the cost of living is a minute wasted of the political work of this government.”

skip past newsletter promotion

Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Starmer spent the middle of last week defending his leadership after allies of his were quoted talking about the prospect of a challenge by Streeting, whom some close to the prime minister believed was preparing to move against him after the budget.

The prime minister insisted No 10 had not been behind the briefings, which were widely seen as an attempt to put Streeting on the back foot. In the end, Streeting gave an assured round of interviews on Wednesday in which he backed Starmer but also burnished his own leadership credentials by dealing with the rumours with a relaxed humour.

Just as talk about Starmer’s position was dying down, Downing Street and the Treasury were rocked by stories on Thursday night revealing that he and the chancellor had decided not to raise income taxes as previously planned.

Officials had been drawing up plans for weeks for a controversial rise in income tax rates, despite Labour having promised in its manifesto not to do so.

On Wednesday Starmer and Reeves decided not to pursue this course, choosing instead to raise a number of smaller taxes in an approach some have called a ‘“smorgasbord”. They had hoped to communicate that in a gradual way over the week before the budget but were blindsided by a story in the Financial Times revealing the decision on Thursday.

Starmer’s allies hope his promise to remain in place into the next election will dampen speculation over potential successors. However, with Labour on 19% in the polls – eight points behind Reform UK – many in his party think he could face a contest after the local elections in May.