Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to fight any coup launched against his leadership this year and intends to still be Prime Minister come 2027.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir argued that switching leaders would be a “gift” to Nigel Farage and was against the “national interest”.
The Prime Minister also said it was time for the UK to have “even closer alignment with the single market” in a signal he wants to move faster towards the European Union (EU).
Sir Keir issued new criticism of how Brexit promises made by Right-wing figures during the 2016 referendum, such as reducing immigration and delivering money for the NHS, failed to materialise.
However, he stuck by Labour manifesto commitments not to rejoin the single market, customs union or EU free movement, insisting that Brexit would not be unpicked.
The Prime Minister ended the year with persistent speculation about whether his leadership was under threat, given Labour’s polling woes and policy missteps in his first 18 months in office.
In a lengthy interview at the start of January, Sir Keir warned his party off trying to oust him by pointing back to how the Tories repeatedly changed prime minister in recent years.
Asked if he would fight any coup mounted this year, Sir Keir said: “Under the last government, we saw constant chopping and changing of leadership, of teams, it caused utter chaos, utter chaos, and it’s amongst the reasons that the Tories were booted out so effectively at the last election. Nobody wants to go back to that. It’s not in our national interest.”
Elsewhere in the interview he said: “We know from that evidence what happens if you go down that chaotic path, and I’m not going to take us back to that kind of chaos.
“I will be sitting in this seat by 2027 and if this long-form interview works, we can try it again in January of next year as well.”
At another point he said bringing about political “chaos” by changing leader “would gift Nigel Farage”, the Reform leader whose party has been top in opinion polls since April.
The defiant message comes amid discussion in Westminster about whether the Prime Minister would ever contemplate handing over the leadership if it looked like Reform was set to win the next general election.
Sir Keir privately moved to resign as Labour leader a year into his tenure in May 2021 after losing the Hartlepool by-election, fearing he was not helping his party to win back power. Aides talked him out of the move.
The wobble behind closed doors only emerged years later.
Labour is facing a bruising set of local election results this May. On current polls, the party could lose its grip on Wales to either Reform or Plaid Cymru and fall back in councils across England. The SNP also appears best-placed to once again win the Scottish parliamentary elections and extend their long run in power there.
In the interview Sir Keir also outlined a new rhetorical position on his ambitions for getting closer to the EU, talking up the need to gain greater access to the single market.
The Prime Minister faced pressure before Christmas to rejoin the customs union from cabinet ministers Wes Streeting and David Lammy, who appeared to talk up the prospect.
Supporters have been arguing that lowering trade barriers with the EU will help deliver Sir Keir’s priority of boosting economic growth, though EU sceptics argue against that calculation.
‘We should get closer to single market’
Sir Keir told the BBC: “I think we should get closer, and if it’s in our national interest to have even closer alignment with the single market, then we should consider that, we should go that far.
“We’re already aligning on energy, reconnecting to energy in Europe on emissions, but I think the single market further alignment, as I say, if it’s in our interest to do so, we should take that step.”
He suggested that getting close to the single market, the EU’s trading bloc, was preferable to the customs union, which oversees agreements on rules and regulations, as the latter could imperil trade deals struck with other nations.
Sir Keir said: “What I would say about the customs union is that I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge.
“I do understand why people are saying ‘wouldn’t it be better to go to the customs union?’ I actually think that now we’ve done deals with the US, which are in our national interest, now we’ve done deals with India, which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment. It wouldn’t be in our interest now to give up.”
Starmer calls out Farage’s Brexit ‘falsehoods’
The Prime Minister also dialled up his criticism of the promises made by Brexit campaign figures during the 2016 referendum, taking a swipe at Mr Farage in the process.
Sir Keir said: “We’re now looking forward on this. But what I would say is this, that what is becoming increasingly apparent is the falsehoods that were peddled by Nigel Farage and others at the time of the Brexit referendum, that promise that all you had to do was leave the EU and immigration would go down.
