Keir Starmer on the brink after elections hammering: Live updates

Sir Keir Starmer has again insisted he will not quit and promised to offer more ‘hope’ from his Government following yesterday’s disastrous elections for Labour.

The Prime Minister said: ‘I’m not going to walk away from this, that would plunge the country into chaos.

‘But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to respond. It doesn’t mean we don’t need to rebuild. It doesn’t mean that we don’t need to set out the path ahead. That’s what I’m going to do in the coming days.’

He said one of the ‘unnecessary mistakes’ made by the Government was levelling with the public about the financial and international challenges facing the country, but not setting out how their lives would improve.

Sir Keir said: ‘The hope wasn’t there enough in the first two years of this government.

That’s why it’s important for me now to set out where hope resides. It resides in our young people having the future to go as far as their talent or ability will take them – to genuinely have that because if you’ve grown up in poverty, you don’t get that chance.’

Sir Keir Starmer said he would be ‘setting out with clarity the convictions and values that drive me’ in the coming days, as he continues to defy calls to quit in the wake of Labour’s disastrous results in the local elections.

During a visit in south London, the PM said: ‘We did make a number of really important calls in the last couple of years about stabilising the economy, investing in our public services, not getting drawn into the war in Iran.

‘We need to couple to that to the arguments we’re making about hope and the future, about young people, about place, and so I will be setting out those arguments, but more than anything setting out with clarity the values and convictions that drive me.’

Labour MPs have mocked Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to bring back Labour heavyweights Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman today, saying it is ‘pure gimmick’ and will not save his premiership.

One told the Daily Mail the ‘pure gimmick’ and ‘nonsense’ move suggests the Prime Minister doesn’t ‘grasp the scale of the challenge’ after Labour’s electoral wipeout.

A senior backbencher said: ‘It’s nuts. But more importantly, it’s ineffectual.’

A cabinet minister joked to the Mail: ‘I’m waiting for the ghost of Barbara Castle to appear on the steps of No.10.’

A second scathingly reacted: ‘It doesn’t exactly scream THE FUTURE does it?’

Plaid Cymru is set to gather its 43-strong team of Welsh parliamentarians together, as the party sizes up the prospects of forming the next Government of Wales while Labour licks its wounds from a historic defeat.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has effectively declared victory for his party in the Welsh elections, after it became the largest party in the new Senedd – marking the first time since devolution that Labour has been unseated.

However, Plaid fell short of attaining a majority of 49 Members of the Senedd (MSs).

This means it will either have to enter a coalition with other parties if it wishes to form a Government, or a less formal arrangement where rival political outfits agree to back it in certain Senedd votes.

Plaid will ‘reach out’ to other parties with urgency, Mr ap Iorwerth said on Friday, adding that he plans to put his name forward to be nominated as the next first minister.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens have all ruled out the prospect of working with Reform UK, which is the second largest party in the new Senedd with 34 MSs.

Labour, with its nine MSs, would be an obvious coalition partner for Plaid to reach a majority. The two parties have a history of governing together: the Welsh nationalist party has previously been a junior coalition partner to Labour between 2007 and 2009, and also agreed a co-operation deal with Welsh Labour in 2021.

By Jason Groves, Political Editor and Claire Ellicot

Andy Burnham is poised to throw down the gauntlet to Keir Starmer next week as the Prime Minister struggles to cling to power.

Allies of the Greater Manchester mayor on Friday night said he had identified a potential Westminster seat that would enable him to return to Parliament, opening the way for a leadership bid.

One outrider for Mr Burnham told the Daily Mail: ‘Andy is ready to go and this time he will not be stopped.’

However, Friday’s bloodbath at the ballot box threatens to make it trickier for the former health secretary, as the notion of a ‘safe seat’ dwindles and Labour fears losing Manchester to Reform.

Read the full story below:

While the vast majority of councils in England have now declared their results, five out of the 136 that held elections on Friday have not.

The councils that we are still waiting for are: Bradford, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets.

All five are expected to declare by this evening.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party made significant gains at the elections, mocked the Prime Minister over Mr Brown’s appointment.

He said in a post on X:

An unpopular prime minister who lost a general election is now seen by Starmer as being the saviour. Labour are doomed.

Number 10 have shared a series of new images from Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown this morning.

Mr Brown will be the Prime Minister’s special envoy on global finance, helping forge international co-operation, including with the European Union.

The Prime Minister also appointed former deputy Labour leader Baroness Harriet Harman as his adviser on women and girls.

The decision to offer unpaid, part-time roles to two of the biggest names from the last Labour government comes after Sir Keir suffered a disastrous set of election results in Wales, Scotland and English councils.

Gordon Brown is ‘well placed’ to build a stronger Britain, the Prime Minister has said in a post on X.

He said Brown, a former Prime Minister and Britain’s longest serving Chancellor, will work with international allies to ‘boost our country’s security and resilience’.

The Green Party is ‘open to having conversations’ with Plaid Cymru over the next Welsh government, the party’s leader has said.

In a statement, Anthony Slaughter said:

We welcome the defeat of Reform and congratulate Plaid Cymru on their result – this is a victory for everyone who wanted to keep Reform’s divisive, Trumpian politics out of Wales.

We are a welcoming nation – and Wales needs to stay a place where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, and can thrive.

When it comes to the next government of Wales, we are open to having conversations, but no decisions have been made at this point.

In any negotiations we will be looking to deliver on the Green objectives that people voted on in this election – including action to address the cost-of-living crisis, protecting our NHS, fixing the renting crisis and restoring our natural environment.

Based on the results from 129 out of the 136 councils in England that held elections on Thursday, Labour has won 47 per cent of the seats it was defending.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have won 63 per cent of the seats they were defending.

These figures are a comparison with seats the parties held just before the elections took place.

Using the same calculation, at last year’s local elections in England both Labour and the Tories won 33 per cent of the seats they were defending.

Reform UK has won 31 per cent of the seats in which it stood candidates this year, while the Greens have won 12 per cent.

Last year, Reform won 42 per cent of the seats it contested and the Greens won 7 per cent.

Gordon Brown and Sir Keir Starmer were pictured on the steps on Number 10 this morning after the pair met following Labour’s hammering in the local elections.

Brown, a former Labour PM, was handed a new top job of special envoy on global finance.

However, as the pair left and posed for the cameras, Starmer was awkwardly photographed reaching for a handshake that was not returned.