Sir Keir Starmer pleaded with Labour to give him space to lead the party in the “fight of our lives” against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
The Prime Minister acknowledged the public’s frustration with the time taken to deliver the change people voted for in last year’s landslide general election win.
But he insisted he can turn the situation around and called on Labour to end the “introspection” and “navel-gazing” as speculation mounted about his position.
In an interview on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg as Labour’s conference began in Liverpool, Sir Keir said there is “a lot of hard work to do” for his administration to deliver the change promised as he secured the election victory last year.
The scale of the challenge facing Sir Keir has been underlined by a poll indicating Mr Farage could be on course for Downing Street, with Labour reduced to just 90 seats.
The slump in both Labour’s poll ratings and Sir Keir’s personal approval has fuelled leadership speculation, with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham suggesting he has been privately urged by MPs to challenge the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir said he will be “judged at the next election” on whether he has improved living standards, the NHS and security.
“I’ll be judged at the end of that five years, and quite right too,” he said. “But I just need the space to get on and do what we need to do, to do those three things above all else, but also – in a world which is more volatile than any of us have known for a very long time – to ensure that the United Kingdom is safe and secure.
“We have got the fight of our lives ahead of us, because we’ve got to take on Reform, we’ve got to beat them.
“So now is not the time for introspection or navel-gazing. There is a fight that we are all in together and every single member of our party and our movement, actually everyone who cares about what this country is, whether they vote Labour or otherwise, it’s the fight of our lives for who we are as a country. We need to be in that fight united, not navel-gazing.”
Asked how much trouble he is in, Sir Keir said: “We’ve got a lot of hard work to do.”
He highlighted achievements including increasing NHS appointments and rolling out an expansion of childcare.
“We inherited a complete mess, a broken economy, a broken public services,” the Prime Minister said.
“We said we would change that, and I always said that would take time. But I do understand people are frustrated.”
