Starmer insists he can prove his doubters wrong
ITV’s Robert Peston went next. He said he had spoken the weekend speaking to Labour MPs and ministers and most of them said he was no longer the best person for the job.
Labour supports in the room protested. And Starmer himself said “no, no no”.
Peston went on to ask why people should believe he could deliver more than incremental change.
Starmer said he would prove his doubters wrong.
I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I’ve got some doubters, including my own party.
And I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I have to prove them wrong. And I will.
I had my doubters when I took on the Labour Party. I had my doubters who said we couldn’t change this party and make it capable of winning an election. And I proved them wrong.
Key events
Starmer says constant leadership changes under Tories ‘inflicted huge damage on this country’
Q: [From Jack Elsom from the Sun] When you spoke to Angela Rayner, did she rule out launching a leadership challenge against you? And do you think there would have to be an election if Labour elected a new leader?
Starmer said he would not discuss his conversations with Rayner.
And, on an election, Starmer said:
On this question of chaos, look, the question whether if a government constantly changes its leadership, the question whether that damages the country is not an academic question, it’s not something that you study at university and go through various theories. We tested it. We tested it to destruction under the last government and inflicted huge damage on this country.
A Labour government will never be forgiven if we repeat that and inflict that on the country.
And that’s what I mean when I say I’m not going to plunge this country into chaos.
Q: [From Sophie Huskisson from the Mirror] Have you spoken to Anas Sarwar and Eluned Morgan since the elections? And do you agree with Angela Rayner that this is Labour’s last chance to turn things round?
Starmer said he had spoken to Sarwar and Morgan.
And he said he had spoken to Rayner, so he knew exactly what her thinking was.
Q: [From Aubrey Allegretti from the Times] Do you agree with what Peter Kyle said this morning about how a byelection for Andy Burnham, and a mayoral election in Greater Manchester, would be a distraction of Labour. Could Labour afford to let them go ahead?
Starmer said he had already answered a question about this.
Now, the first person I worked for when I came to Parliament was Andy. He wanted me and his team in the shadow Home Office. I wanted to be in his team in the shadow Home Office. So we work very well together. We’ll continue to work very well together. if the issue arises, it’ll be a matter for the NEC on the decade.
Q: [From the FT’s Jim Pickard] If you stick to your manifesto red lines on the single market and the customs union, you won’t be able to take the UK to the heart of Europe?
Starmer said he would be pushing for “a big leap forward” in relations with the EU at the summit coming later this year.
Starmer says he will fight any challenge to his leadership
Q: [From the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar] If someone launches a leadership challenge against you, will you fight it? And do you think Britain is now ungovernable?
Starmer said yes, and no.
On the first question, he won’t walk away from a challenge, he said
And, on whether Britain is becoming ungovernable, he said:
I don’t think Britain is ungovernable. On the contrary, one of the things that I draw great strength from is [the] millions of people who care passionately about their place, their community, where they live, where they are the millions of people who give hours and hours and hours at that time for that community, volunteering, helping others, running teams, you name it. That is a great strength of our country.
I draw strength from the fact that we are a reasonable, tolerant, decent country, a live and let live country, a diverse country that is the real Britain. That’s not an ungovernable Britain. That is the Britain that I will fight for, particularly in light of the opponents.
Q: [From Katherine Forster from GB News] Many working class people voted for Brexit. So why are you promising them more Europe?
Starmer said it was important to explain that the promises made at the time of Brexit have not been kept.
The reason I reminded everyone what Nigel Farage said is because that was the promise he put to the country, that we’d be stronger, we’d be richer, we’d have lots of money for the NHS, immigration would come down and it all proved to be false.
And he doesn’t take any responsibility.
He’s not going back to the country now saying it was a good thing you’ve all benefited. He’ll talk about almost anything else apart from the consequences of the one thing that he delivered for the country, Brexit.
Starmer insists he can prove his doubters wrong
ITV’s Robert Peston went next. He said he had spoken the weekend speaking to Labour MPs and ministers and most of them said he was no longer the best person for the job.
Labour supports in the room protested. And Starmer himself said “no, no no”.
Peston went on to ask why people should believe he could deliver more than incremental change.
Starmer said he would prove his doubters wrong.
I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I’ve got some doubters, including my own party.
And I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I have to prove them wrong. And I will.
I had my doubters when I took on the Labour Party. I had my doubters who said we couldn’t change this party and make it capable of winning an election. And I proved them wrong.
Starmer says ‘chaos of constantly changing leaders’ under Tories was bad for UK, with working people paying price
Q: [From Sky’s Beth Rigby] Have you considered standing down since the election results, and if not, why not?
Starmer said “the chaos of constantly changing leaders” under the Tories cost the country a “huge amount”. Working people paid the price, he said. He went on:
Yes, I acknowledge the frustration. Yes, I acknowledge the results are tough. Yes, I acknowledge that we’ve lost brilliant representatives across the United Kingdom. I have a responsibility for that.
But I also have a responsibility to deliver the change that we were elected and that we promised this country, and I’ll deliver on that.
Starmer plays down prospect of Burnham being allowed by Labour to be byelection candidate
After the speech, Starmer took questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Will this speech be enough to get Labour MPs to back you? And will you continue to block Andy Burnham returning to the Commons.
Starmer said this is not the first time the UK has faced challenges. He repeated the point about wanting to change the status quo.
On Burnham, he said:
In relation to Andy Burnham, obviously, any future decision is for the NEC and he’s doing a great job as mayor in Manchester and I actually work really well with Andy.
(That was not a no, but it sounded as if Starmer was certainly not keen on letting Starmer fight a byelection.)
Starmer gave two examples of this: Northern Powerhouse Rail, and the response to the Manchester syngague attack.
Starmer says government will ban far-right agitators from travelling to UK for march planned for Saturday
Starmer ended his speech by saying the government would ban “far-right agitators from travelling to Britain” for a march planned for this Saturday by the far right.
