Keir Starmer takes responsibility for ‘really tough’ election results but says he ‘won’t walk away’
Deputy prime minister David Lammy has backed the prime minister, saying “You don't change the pilot during a flight.”
Keir Starmer has taken responsibility for Labour’s “really tough” results in the local elections, but has said he will stay on as prime minister.
Only around a quarter of the election results have been declared so far, but they indicate heavy losses for Labour.
The party has already lost control of eight councils and over two hundred councillors at the time of writing. Labour is predicted to lose 1,200 council seats in total.
Speaking to Sky News journalist Beth Rigby, Starmer said he “takes responsibility” for Labour’s losses in the local elections.
He acknowledged that “voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved.”
He also said that “when voters send a message like this we must reflect and we must respond”.
Starmer said he was elected to meet those challenges and that he is “not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos”.
Rigby also asked Starmer what he had to say to MPs who are “really upset” with him and want him to resign, after the energy secretary Ed Miliband reportedly told the prime minister to plan his resignation.
The PM said “I think it’s very important we don’t sugarcoat the results, so I’m not going to do that, they are tough results and I accept that.”
He added: ‘They reflect voters who don’t feel their lives have changed enough or quickly enough.”
He repeated that “we were elected to deal with that, and I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos”.
The deputy prime minister David Lammy has backed Keir Starmer’s leadership, stating: “You don’t get rid of the pilot mid-flight because of a bit of turbulence”.
However, other party figures are calling for Starmer to resign.
A former Labour minister, Lord Dave Watts, has called for Andy Burnham to replace Starmer as prime minister.
Writing for the HuffPost, Watts said that the results indicate that Starmer does not “possess the qualities required to steer the country through these turbulent times and reconnect with a disillusioned electorate”.
“It’s clear we need a change, and many MPs and Labour voters are looking to the most successful and popular Labour politician, Andy Burnham, to provide that change,” he added.
Watts argued that Burnham should be allowed to stand in a parliamentary by-election so he can become Labour leader and prime minister.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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