‘I’m not going to walk away’ - Keir Starmer vows not to quit amid devastating Labour losses

Keir Starmer has declared he is “not going to walk away” after overseeing “very tough” local election results for the Labour Party.

The Prime Minister issued his first comments after what proved to be a bruising night for his party, losing ground to Nigel Farage’s Reform and others.

“Let me be clear, these are really tough results,” he said.

“The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives and those elected to meet those challenges and I'm not going to walk away from those issues and challenges.

“We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country, these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party.

“That hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility,” Sir Keir said.

However, the Prime Minister insisted: “I'm not going to walk away from responsibility and plunge the country into chaos."

"It was a five year term I was elected to do and that's what I'm going to do.

“Tough days like this don't weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised... They strengthen my resolve to do so,” Sir Keir declared.

Reflecting on voters moving away from his party, Sir Keir said: “They've sent a message that the change we promised isn't being delivered in a way they can feel.

“And, frankly, they're fed up with years of the status quo.

“I think it's absolutely clear that the electorate is fed up with the fact that their lives aren't changing quickly enough. “This has been going on for a very, very long time.

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“I think that we were right to emphasise to the country the difficult inheritance we had, the challenges we face, but we haven't done enough to convince people that things can improve, their lives can get better.

“I'm not going to walk away from that challenge,” the Prime Minister reiterated.

“We made a number of calls which were the right calls in terms of stabilising the economy, investing in our public services and not getting dragged into the Iran war.

Despite the robust defence, Sir Keir did admit his party had mad mistakes in Government.

“But we also made unnecessary mistakes.

“My job now is to set out the steps that we will take to bring about the change that people want and deserve,” the Prime Miniter insisted.