Starmer insists ‘vast majority’ of Labour wants him to stay on as Prime Minister

Sir Keir Starmer remains defiant he will continue to lead Labour into the next general election.

Despite a tough week, the PM insisted that the majority of his MPs still had confidence in him.

As details regarding Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US continue to drip out, discussions have rumbled over Sir Keir’s future.

But the Labour leader was adamant he would stay the course, saying he hadn’t turned around Labour’s fortunes in 2024 ‘not to deliver’.

The next election would likely be a fight between Labour and Reform, at which he would campaign for ‘tolerance, decency, live and let live’ – all values he said would be under threat if Nigel Farage moved into Downing Street.

‘You can’t be in politics, you can’t be the prime minister, if you let these things get to you’, he told the Times.

A key frustration for the PM is the media’s focus on the Mandelson fallout at the expense of his work on the world stage.

At the end of last week, Starmer looked in his element shaking hands with French president Emmanuel Macron during a visit to the Elysee Palace.

There he attended a meeting of 51 countries to agree on a plan to protect commercial shipping on the Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil chokepoint that has become the focal point of the Iran conflict.

However, things looked very different as he returned to domestic matters on Monday, when he addressed MPs in the Commons to explain his decision to send the nicknamed ‘Prince of Darkness’ to Washington.

Starmer insisted ‘full process’ had been followed but admitted he had made the wrong call in appointing Mandelson.

He added it ‘beggars belief’ he wasn’t told that Mandelson had apparently failed developed vetting.

Further questions arose on Tuesday after sacked permanent secretary Sir Olly Robbins gave his account, highlighting ‘pressure’ his department felt from No 10 to get the vetting process done swiftly.

Explaining his decision to dismiss Sir Olly, Starmer insisted the senior civil servant had made a ‘fundamental’ error in not sounding the alarm on Mandelson’s appointment when there was a ‘double red flag’.

But are some signs the Mandelson saga may have spilled out of the conventional Westminster bubble.

Last night Starmer was also the subject of ridicule on Saturday Night Live UK, which took advantage of the drama to present a knock-off version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

The sketch, retitled as ‘Who wants to remain a millionaire’, featured George Fouracres impersonating Starmer and Al Nash as host Jeremy Clarkson.

It saw the fake Starmer asked ‘Is it ever a good idea to give Peter Mandelson a job? as a Millionaire-style question.

The PM was depicted as dithering with his answer, while burning through his lifelines, including asking a fake Mandelson the answer as his ‘phone a Friend’.

But Starmer has repeatedly tried to steer things back onto serious politics, insisting he has to make a ‘huge’ amount of decisions on a daily basis, not least on the ‘urgent issue of our time’ – keeping Britain’s economy on track despite global headwinds.

As talks stall between the US and Iran, ministers have been preparing for possible scenarios in the event of protracted conflict, including disruption to food and fuel supplies.

This morning the PM’s chief secretary Darren Jones said consumers could feel the pinch for as much as eight months after the war is brought to an end.

For Starmer, the next big test will be local elections on May 7, where Labour is facing a challenge to hang on to councils across London, while the party is on course to lose power for the first time in the Welsh Senedd.

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