Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged voters to choose “unity over division” in a rallying cry ahead of Thursday’s local elections
Keir Starmer has called on voters to opt for “unity over division” in a rousing appeal ahead of a crucial round of local elections.
The Prime Minister declared the nation must tackle the enormous challenges bequeathed by austerity, the Covid pandemic, Brexit and Liz Truss’s disastrous mini Budget – alongside the fallout from the war in Iran – by coming together as one. Penning a piece in the Mirror, he implored the public to back progress towards a brighter tomorrow rather than the “politics of anger” when they cast their ballots on Thursday.
Mr Starmer claimed Labour’s opponents had demonstrated their inability to rise to the occasion, following Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage’s swift endorsement of Donald Trump’s Middle Eastern conflict. He also slammed Green Party leader Zack Polanski for advocating withdrawal from Nato and sharing a social media post that criticised the police’s handling of the antisemitic terror incident in Golders Green.
This comes as millions prepare to visit polling stations on Thursday throughout England, Wales and Scotland in what represents the Labour Government’s most significant electoral challenge since its overwhelming triumph in 2024.
Political analysts have delivered grim forecasts suggesting Labour could lose hundreds of council seats in England, surrender control in Wales and fall considerably short of success in Scotland, creating a catastrophic set of outcomes barely two years after the general election.
Yet Mr Starmer has emerged defiant as he vowed to voters there remained much work ahead to repair the chaos inherited from the Conservatives. In a piece for the Mirror, the Prime Minister declared: “Politics is about choices. The choices that affect you and your family. On Thursday, when you go to put your vote in the ballot box, there’s a clear choice on that piece of paper.
“Unity or division. Progress versus the politics of anger. The right plan for our country up against easy answers that will lead us nowhere.”
He continued: “Farage, Badenoch and Polanski have proven they cannot meet this moment. But my Labour Government is.”
The aftermath of the elections could prove decisive for the Prime Minister as rumours circulate about whether he might encounter a leadership challenge.
Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are being touted as potential candidates for the keys to No10, though neither seems eager to brandish the dagger. Andy Burnham has barely concealed his leadership aspirations, but he lacks a parliamentary seat – preventing him from entering a leadership race.
The PM’s supporters are intensifying their efforts to thwart any conspiracy should Labour tensions explode following the local elections.
Communities Secretary Steve Reed, a devoted ally of the PM, called on MPs to avoid Tory-style “doom-scrolling” through leaders should Labour take a battering at the ballot box. Numerous MPs are “sick and tired of all this psychodrama”, he declared. He continued: “The whole notion that we would copy the Conservatives and go doom-scrolling through leaders in a way that means the government is completely incapable of dealing with the things that matter the most to the British public is an absolute nonsense. And I’m not going to engage in it, and most of our MPs would not engage in it either.”
A group of furious backbenchers is reportedly scheming to rebel and demand his resignation in an open letter following the fallout. But Tom Watson, who was part of a similar conspiracy to topple Tony Blair, cautioned it was a blunder that risked harming Labour and providing ammunition to its adversaries.
He penned on his Substack: “If Labour has lost support to Reform, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, the solution cannot simply be a different name on the door. The party has to listen harder, think deeper and recover its political purpose.
“So, with the greatest respect to any colleague tempted by this course: that was then and this is now. Do not do it. Really, do not. If I had my time again, I would not have signed the letter in 2006.”