Starmer insists he will ‘never walk away’ from task he has to change UK, as he urges Labour to stop feuding
Keir Starmer is speaking at an event in Hertfordshire.
He starts with a reference to the events of yesterday – saying there has been a lot of politics around recently.
But he is focused on the cost of living, he says. He says he knows what it is like to struggle, because when he was growing up his family couldn’t always pay their bills.
He says he leads the most working-class cabinet in history.
He says people are still being held back by their backgrounds.
He says that the system did not work for people like his brother, who spent “his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty”. And other people are in the same situtation, he says.
He says he is fighting to help “young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve”, and the “millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them”.
He says he wants to ensure people get the “dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve”.
He goes on:
[There are some] people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them.
And I say to them – I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, I will never walk away from the country that I love.
Britain is a compassionate country, he says. “Given half the chance, we’ll help each other out,” he says.
He says the real fight is not within the Labour party. It is with rightwing politics, and the politics of grievance. And he will be in that fight “as long as I have breath in my body”.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love.
And that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live and let live country, a diverse country where, given half the chance, we’ll help each other out.
That is who we are as a country, and I want to serve every single part of that country, the country that I love.
The fight coming up in politics, the real fight is not in the Labour party. It’s with the right-wing politics that challenges that, the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance.
That will tear our country apart. That is the fight that we are in, and I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body.
Keir Starmer speaking to people at a community centre in Hertfordshire. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/ReutersShare
Updated at 12.04 EST
Key events
1h ago
Early evening summary
1h ago
Support for cutting taxes, and spending less on health, education and benefits, at highest level for 40 years, report says
2h ago
Starmer’s former PR chief apologies over links with paedophile councillor and quits Labour party in Lords
2h ago
Reform UK threatens to withdraw funding from university after its debating society declines to host Q&A with Reform MP
3h ago
Starmer says Labour has ‘pulled together as a party’, as he says he backs Anas Sarwar ‘100%, without reservation’
3h ago
Minister says new court records database being developed after protests about Courtsdesk archive being wiped
4h ago
Minister defends MoD contract with Palantir, saying it built on deal struck by Tories, and Mandelson not involved
4h ago
Starmer insists he will ‘never walk away’ from task he has to change UK, as he urges Labour to stop feuding
5h ago
Eluned Morgan says she won’t give ‘running commentary’ on Westminster – but Wales better off when Labour succeeds
6h ago
Burnham says Britain will only be able to build ‘new economy’ with wholesale electoral reform
6h ago
Burnham says Labour needs to ‘dial down’ on constant briefing against each other
6h ago
Burnham says he hopes Mandelson scandal will end political culture ‘too close to wealth and power’
7h ago
Burnham backs Starmer staying on as PM, saying UK needs ‘stability’, while also urging PM to be more ‘inclusive’
7h ago
Burnham says he has never argued politicians can ignore bond markets
7h ago
Burnham says government should commit to building 500,000 council and social homes by end of decade
7h ago
Burnham speaks at Resolution Foundation conference on ‘Unsung Britain’
7h ago
Starmer tells cabinet Sarwar’s comments yesterday won’t stop Labour fighting to make him first minister
7h ago
Scottish Tories say it’s ‘ludicrous’ for Douglas Alexander to campaign alongside Sarwar given Starmer disagreement
7h ago
Douglas Alexander insists Starmer and Sarwar can work together despite leadership row – citing Blair/Brown precedent
8h ago
Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan says she backs Starmer, but says he must ‘deliver for Wales’
8h ago
Councils and campaigners welcome government’s £1bn community energy investment plan
9h ago
Miliband says he does not agree with Streeting’s claim about Labour having ‘no growth strategy’ in message to Mandelson
9h ago
Miliband rules out running again for Labour leadership
9h ago
Miliband says he does not know if Sarwar’s move against Starmer plotted with others, and urges party to ‘move on’
10h ago
Miliband says PM has ‘burning passion’ to end ‘class divide’ – but that it’s ‘balderdash’ to call this class war
10h ago
Miliband says Starmer facing down leadership threat must lead to ‘moment of change’, with more ‘clarity’ and ‘boldness’
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Early evening summary
Matthew Doyle, Keir Starmer’s former communications chief, has apologised for a friendship with a paedophile councillor. (See 5.40pm.) He has also said that he will give up the Labour whip in the Lords. Labour said the whip was being withdrawn anyway while an investigation is carried out. “All complaints are assessed thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures,” a spokesperson said.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Liz Kendall and Wes Streeting arriving for cabinet this morning. Photograph: Maja Smiejkowska/PAShare
Updated at 13.12 EST
Support for cutting taxes, and spending less on health, education and benefits, at highest level for 40 years, report says
According to the British Social Attitudes survey, support for cutting taxes, and spending less on health, education and benefits, is at its highest level for 40 years.
In its report with the data, the National Centre for Social Research says:
Our initial findings from the 2025 BSA survey show how the public have responded to some of the recent challenges faced by policy makers. People have reacted against the increase in the size of the state in the wake of the expansion engendered by the pandemic. They have become less supportive of spending on welfare in the wake of increasing expenditure occasioned by illhealth, disability and an ageing population. Meanwhile, record levels of net inward migration have been accompanied by a reversal of a once favourable perception of the impact of migration.
However, not everyone has changed their mind. Rather, we are now looking at a public that looks more divided on these subjects than hitherto. For the first time since BSA began in 1983, a significant proportion of people now endorse a reduction in taxes and spending rather than just look for increases to stop.
And here is the chart showing these figures.
Attitudes towards tax and spending Photograph: BSA/British Social AttitudesShare
Starmer’s former PR chief apologies over links with paedophile councillor and quits Labour party in Lords
Matthew Doyle, Keir Starmer’s former communications chief, has apologised for a friendship with a paedophile councillor. He has also said that he will give up the Labour whip in the Lords.
There has been controversy about Doyle’s links with Sean Morton ever since they were first revealed in the Sunday Times in December, shortly after it was announced that Doyle was on a list of 25 Labour peers being created.
Doyle took his seat in the Lords in January, and initially he took the Labour whip. But opposition parties have condemned his appointment and his decision to cut his links with the Labour group seems to have been prompted by fears that, with Peter Mandelson now out of the Lords for good, Doyle may find himself under more intense scrutiny.
As PA Media reports, Doyle campaigned for Morton in 2017 after he had been charged over indecent images of children, saying he believed his assertions of innocence. It is understood No 10 was not aware Doyle had campaigned for Morton at the time he was made a peer.
In a statement today, Doyle said:
I want to apologise for my past association with Sean Morton.
His offences were vile and I completely condemn the actions for which he was rightly convicted. My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted by these crimes.
At the point of my campaigning support, Morton repeatedly asserted to all those who knew him his innocence, including initially in court. He later changed his plea in court to guilty.
To have not ceased support ahead of a judicial conclusion was a clear error of judgment for which I apologise unreservedly.
Labour had suspended Morton after he appeared in court in connection with indecent child images in late 2016. Doyle campaigned for Morton when he ran as an independent in May 2017. Morton admitted having indecent images of children in November 2017.
In his statement, Doyle said:
Those of us who took [Morton] at his word were clearly mistaken. I have never sought to dismiss or diminish the seriousness of the offences for which he was rightly convicted.
They are clearly abhorrent and I have never questioned his conviction.
Following his conviction any contact was extremely limited and I have not seen or spoken to him in years.
Twice I was at events organised by other people, which he attended, and once I saw him to check on his welfare after concerns were raised through others.
I acted to try to ensure the welfare of a troubled individual whilst fully condemning the crimes for which he has been convicted and being clear that my thoughts are with the victims of his crimes. I am sorry about the mistakes I have made. I will not be taking the Labour whip.
For the avoidance of any doubt, let me conclude where I started. Morton’s crimes were vile and my only concerns are for his victims.
UPDATE: Labour subsequently said the whip was being withdrawn from Doyle anyway while an investigation is carried out. A Labour spokesperson said: “All complaints are assessed thoroughly in line with our rules and procedures.”
Matthew Doyle Photograph: Imageplotter/AlamyShare
Updated at 13.12 EST
On the subject of Reform UK and Wales, Plaid Cymru has criticised Nigel Farage’s party for the fact that none of its MPs turned up to a debate in Westminster Hall yesterday on the subject of “Russian influence on UK politics and democracy”. Those MPs who were there made numerous references to Nathan Gill, the former Reform UK leader in Wales who was jailed for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make pro-Russia speeches in the European parliament. “The Russian state is trying to target society and democracy in western countries. We should not be so naive as to think that it is not happening here in the UK,” the Plaid MP Ben Lake said.
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Reform UK threatens to withdraw funding from university after its debating society declines to host Q&A with Reform MP
Reform UK has threatened to remove funding from a university where the debating society declined an invitation from the party to host a Q&A with one of its MPs.
Zia Yusuf, head of policy at Reform, claimed this amounted to his party being banned and suggested that, if Nigel Farage became PM, Bangor University would no longer get “a penny” of state funding.
Yusuf was responding on social media to a post from the debating and political society at the university, which said that Reform had asked it to host a Q&A with Sarah Pochin, one of its MPs, and Jack Anderton, a Reform adviser.
The society said it would not be hosting the Q&A proposed by Reform. It said it had “zero tolerance for any form of racism, transphobia or homophobia displayed by the members of Reform UK” and it urged other university debating unions to joint it in keeping “hate out of our universities”.
Yusuf replied:
Bangor University have banned Reform and called us “racist, transphobic and homophobic”.
Bangor receives £30 million in state funding a year, much of which comes from Reform-voting taxpayers.
I am sure they won’t mind losing every penny of that state funding under a Reform government.
After all, they wouldn’t want a racist’s money would they?
And he also posted these follow-up messages on social media.
The Vice Chancellor of Bangor University is paid £287,000 a year, and the university employs 32 people on more than £100k.
All to indoctrinate their students so much they ban an MP from the party leading national polls from speaking at a debate.
Why should taxpayers fund this?
Worth noting for the Bangor University situation, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 does not apply in Wales.
Even things the Tories did that they call “wins” were weak and supine under scrutiny.
That’s why the radical left captured the country on their watch.
A spokesperson for the university told the BBC that the university “welcomes debate across the political spectrum” and that student societies express their own views, not the university’s.
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Starmer says Labour has ‘pulled together as a party’, as he says he backs Anas Sarwar ‘100%, without reservation’
Keir Starmer has said that he supports Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, “100%, without reservation”.
Asked to respond to Sarwar announcing yesterday that he thinks Stamer should stand down as PM, Starmer said:
I’ve got a huge respect for Anas Sarwar. Obviously, he made his views known yesterday.
But I want to be really clear that I’m 100% supportive of Anas Sarwar to be the first minister in Scotland, he’d be an incredible first minister and I support him 100%, without reservation.
Talking about the events of yesterday more generally, Starmer said:
What’s happened over the last few days is that we’ve pulled together as a party and been absolutely crystal clear about the fight we need to have.
And that’s the fight on behalf of all the people in this country who don’t get the respect and dignity and the chance they deserve in life, that is the fight that we are in, that’s who we’re fighting for.
Keir Starmer at the community centre in Hertfordshire. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.21 EST
Keir Starmer has said that he will lead Labour into the next election.
Speaking to broadcasters at his visit to a community centre in Hertfordshire, when he was asked if he would be Labour leader at the next election, he said “yes”, adding that he had a “five-year mandate” to “deliver change”.
(This is one of those questions which journalists feel obliged to ask, but where the answer is almost meaningless because leaders generally feel obliged to reply yes. The only exceptions are when you get the rare combination of a leader a) already contemplating retirement, and b) honest or naive enough to want to disclose that to a reporter.)
Keir Starmer speaking to two men, including a fellow Arsenal fan, at a community centre in Hertfordshire. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/ReutersShare
Minister says new court records database being developed after protests about Courtsdesk archive being wiped
Officials from the Ministry of Justice are working on a new way of sharing details of court cases with journalists after the existing platform was told to delete its records over data protection concerns, MPs were told.
Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, said she accepted that journalists found the Courtsdesk service valuable. But, responding to a Commons urgent question tabled by the Conservatives, she claimed that the government had to shut the Courtdesk archive because an AI company was using it to access sensitive personal data.
Kieran Mullan, a shadow justice minister, suggested the government wanted to cover up what is actually happening in the courts.
Explaining the decision to order Courtsdesk to wipe its archive, Sackman said:
This private company, Courtsdesk, has been sharing private, personal, legally sensitive information with a third-party AI company that includes potentially the addresses, the dates of birth, of defendants and victims. This is a direct breach of our agreement with them.”
The cessation of our agreement with Courtsdesk does not change the information available to the public about what carries on in our courts and nor does it change the information available to journalists.
I recognise that the sort of service that Courtsdesk provided was useful for journalists because it collated the information and presented it neatly, and it’s for that reason that officials in my department are continuing to work, as we always planned to do, on an alternative platform, one that allows us to make the information available, but to maintain the guardrails in relation to data protection.
As PA Media reports, Courtsdesk has been used by more than 1,500 journalists, the company claims. His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) told the firm to delete the details in November after what it deemed “unauthorised sharing” of court data. Last week the government refused calls for the decision to be reversed, meaning it must be deleted within days.
In the Commons Mullan accused the government of making it “harder for journalists to report the truth”. He said Courtsdesk had been a “huge success”.
He went on:
What is it they’re worried about? Could it be that they want to hide the fact that thousands of criminals will escape justice under their sentencing bill? Could it be that when they erode our rights to jury trials, they don’t want the public to hear about what results?
Sackman said journalists would still be able to access court information.
Commenting on the UQ, George Greenwood, an investigative reporter at the Times, said:
What Sarah Sackman said at the dispatch box today is simply wrong.
It is not physically possible for journalists to attend every single court and to obtain the kind of information that Courtsdesk provided in searchable form.
This shuts out the press and undermines open justice.
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Minister defends MoD contract with Palantir, saying it built on deal struck by Tories, and Mandelson not involved
Peter Mandelson had “no influence” on the Ministry of Defence signing a contract with American tech giant Palantir, a defence minister has said, amid “serious questions” about his links to the company. Luke Pollard was speaking in the Commons responding to an urgent question. PA Media says:
Palantir signed a three-year £421m deal with the MoD in December 2025 to continue providing services like data integration, analytics and AI platforms.
Questions are being asked about whether disgraced former US ambassador Lord Mandelson was involved in securing this deal, as he held shares in Global Counsel, a lobbying firm hired by Palantir.
Pollard told MPs: “As the defence secretary [John Healey] has said, the contract was his decision, and his decision alone. Peter Mandelson had no influence on the decision to award this contract.”
He noted that the previous Conservative government signed a three-year enterprise agreement with Palantir in 2022, and said the new deal builds on that.
Pollard added that the government has secured new commitments from Palantir, including to have its European defence headquarters in London, £1.5bn investment into the UK and a new defence mentoring scheme to help British SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) access the US market.
Asking the UQ, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said: “Following Peter Mandelson’s sacking as US ambassador, serious questions surrounding his influence on MoD contracts have emerged, and upon which we have had no meaningful answers.”
Pointing out that the Palantir contract was granted by direct award, rather than open competition, Cartlidge called for “transparency”.
He said: “The question is, to what extent Peter Mandelson and his firm Global Counsel, in which at the time he was a controlling shareholder, benefited from privileged access not available to potential UK competitors, which was used to deliver a quarter of a billion pound defence contract to a client of Global Counsel, without competition?”
Responding, Pollard said the MoD uses Palantir tools and technology “on a daily basis to support the operations and wider data analytics”, adding: “I’m sure he’s not suggesting that we shouldn’t be maintaining access to those vital capabilities.”
The minister also said the Government intends to “publish as much material as we can as soon as reasonably possible”, and that work is “under way” to make that happen.
The chair of the defence committee and Labour MP for Slough, Tan Dhesi, asked: “Why was this particular contract not subject to the usual procurement processes, competitive processes?”
Pollard said that the agreement covered existing services and where there is a “robust technical justification for using Palantir products and services”.
He added that it was “justified under the Procurement Act” and that all procurement procedures were followed with a transparency notice.
Labour MPs including Clive Lewis, Dawn Butler and Neil Duncan-Jordan all criticised the MoD’s contract with Palantir.
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Starmer insists he will ‘never walk away’ from task he has to change UK, as he urges Labour to stop feuding
Keir Starmer is speaking at an event in Hertfordshire.
He starts with a reference to the events of yesterday – saying there has been a lot of politics around recently.
But he is focused on the cost of living, he says. He says he knows what it is like to struggle, because when he was growing up his family couldn’t always pay their bills.
He says he leads the most working-class cabinet in history.
He says people are still being held back by their backgrounds.
He says that the system did not work for people like his brother, who spent “his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty”. And other people are in the same situtation, he says.
He says he is fighting to help “young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve”, and the “millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them”.
He says he wants to ensure people get the “dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve”.
He goes on:
[There are some] people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them.
And I say to them – I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, I will never walk away from the country that I love.
Britain is a compassionate country, he says. “Given half the chance, we’ll help each other out,” he says.
He says the real fight is not within the Labour party. It is with rightwing politics, and the politics of grievance. And he will be in that fight “as long as I have breath in my body”.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love.
And that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live and let live country, a diverse country where, given half the chance, we’ll help each other out.
That is who we are as a country, and I want to serve every single part of that country, the country that I love.
The fight coming up in politics, the real fight is not in the Labour party. It’s with the right-wing politics that challenges that, the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance.
That will tear our country apart. That is the fight that we are in, and I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body.
Keir Starmer speaking to people at a community centre in Hertfordshire. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/ReutersShare
Updated at 12.04 EST
Eluned Morgan says she won’t give ‘running commentary’ on Westminster – but Wales better off when Labour succeeds
At first minister’s questions in Cardiff, Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, reaffirmed her support for Keir Starmer “in the job he was elected to do”. (See 11.18am.)
She told the Senedd:
Keir Starmer was elected with a clear mandate to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom. I support him in the job he was elected to do.
When Labour succeeds in government, the people of Wales become better off and that is my key concern.
My job as first minister is to improve the lives of people in Wales, not to provide a running commentary on Westminster politics.
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Updated at 09.09 EST
Burnham says Britain will only be able to build ‘new economy’ with wholesale electoral reform
Andy Burnham ended his contribution by recalling the Labour MP Paul Goggins, who represented Wythenshawe and Sale East and who died in 2014. He said Goggins was his mentor when he was a young MP. Goggins “was just dedicated to the underdog”, he said.
Burnham went on:
When I came into parliament, I remember [Goggins] said something to me very early on that I’ve never forgotten. He said ‘The point of being here is you’ve got power and you should use all of it, every bit of it, for people who have little power or none at all. But what you will find is most people in here are using their power for people who’ve already got too much.’
And the truth of what he said become more and more apparent to me during my time in parliement.
And I do just finish on that … I think we’ve had a political culture that hasn’t served the common good for quite a while. And I’m not making this a right and left thing. It’s been there in all parties. And it hasn’t serve the interests of Unsung Britain.
And I just think Britain needs to really refocus in this moment. It is a generational moment. If we’re not going to rethink things now, then when are we going to do it?
And I do come back to it. We have to rethink the whole way of working of politics.
The power in too few hands in Whitehall, in Westminster, creates that situation where the manipulation of power by vested interests works against the common good … I have seen that far too much in my political life, and I believe strongly now we need electoral reform, political reform, the replacement with the House of Lords with an elected senate of the nations and regions.
We need root and branch reform across Whitehall and Westminster. And it is only by a new politics we will we start to build a new economy. I don’t think you can do one without the other.
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Burnham says Labour needs to ‘dial down’ on constant briefing against each other
Q: Was Anas Sarwar wrong to call for Keir Starmer to resign? Do you think the government can deliver the promises you want? And would you rule out a leadership challenge?
Burnham replied:
What I’m calling for very clearly today is for the unity, to create the stability to give the government the platform to focus on all of the things that I’m talking about today.
I think we’ve got to get away from the sense that everything is a challenge. I put myself forward [as a byelection candidate] but I was saying – I spoke to the prime minister, I spoke to the government – we need to get a strong sense of a stronger team again than there has been in recent times. And that, I think, is what needs to come from this.
We need to dial down all of this constant briefing. It’s seemingly a bit endless some of the anonymous briefing going round.
Burnham said he would like to see Labour focusing on ensuring Reform UK does not win the Gorton and Denton byelection.
Andy Burnham at the Resolution Foundation event, before he gave his speech. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PAShare
Updated at 09.03 EST
