UK’s Starmer says his government is a ten-year project despite calls to quit

By Andrew MacAskill

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to fight on and said his government was a “10-year project” despite calls to quit after his party’s drubbing in local elections ​earlier this week.

Starmer’s Labour Party recorded the worst losses of a ‌governing party in local elections in more than three decades, prompting a growing number of lawmakers to call for his removal.

A former minister in Starmer’s government said she would seek the backing of other lawmakers to trigger a leadership contest unless his cabinet took ‌steps ​to remove him by Monday.

Asked by the Observer newspaper ⁠in an interview published ⁠on Sunday whether he would lead his Labour Party into the next general election and serve a full second term, Starmer responded: “Yes, I will.”

He added: I’m not going to walk away from the job I was ​elected to do in July 2024. I’m not going to plunge the country into chaos.”

If Starmer is removed in the coming weeks, Britain would end ⁠up with its seventh prime minister in ⁠the past decade.

“A REAL KICKING”

So far, Starmer’s cabinet has stayed ​loyal to the prime minister, despite Thursday’s election losses.

Bridget Phillipson, the education minister, ​said she was confident the prime minister could turn things around, ‌telling Sky News on Sunday that Starmer would set out a “fresh direction” for Britain in a speech on Monday.

“We got a real kicking from the voters, there’s no escaping that,” she said of Labour’s performance in the elections. “We ⁠have to reflect seriously on that.”

Catherine West, who served as a junior foreign minister until Starmer sacked her last year, said she would listen to Starmer’s speech ⁠on Monday before making ‌a final decision about whether to seek the backing of ⁠the 81 members of parliament needed to trigger a ​leadership ‌contest.

Asked on Sunday if she was likely to get ​the numbers, West ⁠told the BBC: “We will find out”.

Starmer must call Britain’s next national election by 2029 at the latest.

If he were still in office at the end of a second five-year term, he would be the third-longest-serving continuous leader in Britain in the last two centuries after Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

(Reporting by Andrew ​MacAskillEditing by Christina Fincher)