Cabinet rallies around Sir Keir Starmer as Anas Sarwar says he should quit as Prime Minister

The Scottish Labour leader said in a hastily arranged press conference in Glasgow that Sir Keir should step down - but prime minister tells MPs at Westminster he will not ‘walk away’

Mr Sarwar became the party’s most senior politician to call for Sir Keir to go in a hastily arranged Glasgow press conference on Monday.

But he had no public support from Cabinet ministers who rallied round Sir Keir, issuing statements even while the Scottish leader was speaking.

Anas Sarwar should defend Keir Starmer's track record in government and contrast it with the SNP's (Picture: Ian Forsyth) | Getty Images

Sir Keir addressed Mr Sarwar’s calls in a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday night, saying that he “recognised concerns” about things that had gone wrong over the past 18 months.

The UK Labour leader is under intense pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Calling for Sir Keir’s resignation, Mr Sarwar said: “There is probably no one in Scottish politics that’s had a better relationship with Keir Starmer or a closer friendship with Keir Starmer than I have.

“He is someone that I have campaigned alongside, worked alongside for the last five years in my role as leader, someone that I campaigned ferociously for to make sure we could get rid of a Tory government, and someone who I have supported in the last 18 months.

“So does this cause me personal hurt and pain? Of course, it does.”

While he said the Prime Minister was “someone that I regard as a friend”, he insisted his “first loyalty has to be to my country, Scotland”.

Mr Sarwar said he did not want to “sacrifice” the country to a third decade of an SNP government.

He said: “That’s why the distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.

“It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months time the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed.

“We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.

“In three months, we have an election that must be about one thing and one thing only, Scotland. That is my duty, that is my priority, that is my loyalty, and that is Scotland’s choice.”

Adding that the “situation in Downing Street is not good enough”, the Scottish Labour leader stated: “They promised they were going to be different, but too much has happened.

“Have there been good things? Of course, there have been many of them, but no one knows them and no one can hear them because they’re being drowned out. That’s why it cannot continue.”

But once Mr Sarwar stood up to speak, Sir Keir’s Cabinet started posting messages of support for the Prime Minister on social media.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was the first of the Cabinet to do so, saying: “We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar arrives at the Trades Hall in Glasgow, where he called for Keir Starmer to resign as Prime Minister | John Devlin / The Scotsman

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast “no” when asked whether Sir Keir needed to resign and urged Labour MPs to give the Prime Minister a chance.

Former deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, like Mr Streeting a potential successor to Sir Keir, said: “I urge all my colleagues to come together, remember our values and put them into practice as a team. The Prime Minister has my full support in leading us to that end.”

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander - an ally of Mr Sarwar who is also Scottish Labour’s campaign coordinator - backed the PM.

He said: “Anas has reached his own decision and I respect that. My job – as Anas acknowledged today – is to make sure Scotland’s voice is heard in Cabinet.

“My focus remains on doing that. The Prime Minister has recognised not just that lessons have to be learned but also that we change how we do Government.

“He is right about that and has my support. Like all Labour MPs we want the Labour Government to be the government that the people of this country hoped for when they rejected the Tories. That is where all of my energies are and will remained focused.”

Ian Murray - who was Scottish Secretary before Mr Alexander - said the Scottish Labour leader was “wrong” to call for the Prime Miniser to go.

He said: “The last thing we need is more chaos when the public want a government on their side tackling the cost of living.

"We inherited a badly failing economy and public services. That takes time to turn around and Keir deserves that time. I’m sorry and deeply disappointed that Anas is wrong here."

The Prime Minister discussed Mr Sarwar at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in the Palace of Westminster on Monday evening.

He said he recognised concerns about things that hadn’t gone right over the last 18 months and that Mr Sarwar had shared his concerns earlier in the day.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer leaving 10 Downing Street, London, after announcing he will not resign | PA

He told Labour MPs he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in” as he vowed not to “walk away”

Flanked by his Cabinet, the Prime Minister struck a defiant note, saying: “I have won every fight I’ve ever been in.

“I fought to change the Crown Prosecution Service so it better served victims of violence against women and girls.

“I fought to change the Labour Party to allow us to win an election again.

“People told me I couldn’t do it. And then they gradually said, you might just get over the line.

“We won with a landslide majority. Every fight I’ve been in, I have won.”

He added: “I have had my detractors every step along the way, and I’ve got them now. Detractors that don’t want a Labour government at all, and certainly not one to succeed.

“But I’ll tell you this, after having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility to my country, or to plunge us into chaos, as others have done.”

He also urged Labour MPs and peers to unite against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which he called the “fight of our lives, the fight of our times”.

He added: “It goes to the heart and soul of who we are as a party, as a government, and as a country, what it is to be British… And if they ever get in, they will divide, divide, divide. And it will tear this beautiful country apart. That is the fight of our times.”

Sir Keir told the packed committee room in the House of Commons: “As long as I have breath in my body, I’ll be in that fight, on behalf of the country that I love and I believe in, against those that want to tear it up.

“That is my fight, that is all of our fight, and we’re in this together.”

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