Keir Starmer fights on after resisting demands to quit

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to fight on Picture: PA

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer will attempt to move on from speculation about his future in No 10 after surviving renewed calls for his resignation from members of his party.

He will take part in a community visit in an attempt to show he is focused on easing the cost-of-living burden after chairing a routine meeting of his Cabinet, a day after his top ministers rallied round him.

The public display of Cabinet support came after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar urged him to quit amid the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Mr Sarwar became the most senior Labour figure to call for Mr Starmer to go, citing concern that the “distraction” from Downing Street would harm his party’s chances of unseating the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections.

But Mr Starmer issued a defiant response at Monday night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, telling a packed room in Westminster: “I’ve won every fight I’ve ever been in.”

The Prime Minister said he was “not prepared to walk away” as he received a warm reception from MPs reluctant to join Mr Sarwar in calling for him to quit.

The lack of a concerted effort by MPs to depose Mr Starmer suggests the immediate danger may have passed.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Sir Keir Starmer to resign (Robert Perry/PA)

But some discontent remains, with one critic comparing the meeting to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a Wild West massacre also known as Custer’s Last Stand.

The Prime Minister is expected to continue efforts to shake up his No 10 operation, with the country’s top civil servant Chris Wormald rumoured to be on his way out in the coming days.

His chief of staff,Morgan McSweeney and communications chief Tim Allan have already departed as Mr Starmer seeks to revive his fortunes after a bruising start to 2026.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said Mr Starmer should resign as he had “proved incapable of doing the things a prime minister needs to do”.

Sir Keir Starmer leaves the Houses of Parliament after announcing he is not resigning (Yui Mok/PA)

With the threat to his position appearing to recede, Mr Starmer is expected to travel to Germany at the end of the week to attend the Munich Security Conference, where concern about the future of the transatlantic alliance is likely to be high on the agenda.