The prime minister, speaking to party staff, defended the government’s achievements since it was elected in 2024
Jakub Krupa writes the Guardian’s Europe live blog.
The European Commission has been asked about its response to the renewed talk about Britain’s potential future attempt to rejoin the European Union – but did not take a bait.
At this stage, there are discussions on closer cooperation in a number of areas, that’s where we are, and that’s what we are doing precisely in preparation for the next summit rather than speculating about big or renewed issues.
We are not there. If we ever are in that situation, I will gladly reply to [this question].
I just wanted to come here to Labour party headquarters to say a big thank you to you. The election results were not the ones that we wanted, they were really tough. But you worked your socks off.
It’s not been easy circumstances in the last 10 days. But you have just got on with the job that we asked you to do.
If you look at just some of the figures that came out last week. We had growth figures that were the best in the G7. That’s because of the hard work that we’ve done in government. On the economy we’ve got ourselves into a good position, having inherited a real basket case from the last government.
The NHS figures were really good, which again vindicates what we did, which was invest in the NHS, which is what we said we would do.
And that’s on top of all the other things … The Employment Rights Act. The biggest upgrade in renters’ rights in a generation.
And then of course all the work that we are doing around child poverty, of which I am really proud. What a game changer that will be for a whole generation and will be measured for years and years to come because the children will feel the impact for the rest of their lives. They will have chances they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
The election results tell us that people are frustrated, they don’t feel that their lives have changed quickly enough.
We need to build up the urgency of what we do. We need a bit more hope in there. And we need to remember at all times what we are here to do. We were elected to government to serve the people of this country.
And I remind myself every day that in July 2024 millions of people voted for us to come into government, to get on with the job, to govern, and to bring about the change that they want.
So I am focused on the job that I was asked to do, which is to serve my country and to carry out my duties as prime minister of this country. Delivering for the very many people who voted us into office, who are saying, ‘just get on with it, get on with the job, get on with the change that I need to see in my life’. And that is what I am going to be doing.
We now have an important by-election coming up. It is Labour versus Reform. We will know very shortly who the candidate is. Whoever they are I am going to support them 100% and I want every member, everyone in our movement, to support them. A Labour candidate to beat Reform. That is the fight that we are in.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/may/18/keir-starmer-labour-leadership-wes-streeting-andy-burnham-david-lammy-brexit-eu-latest-news-updates
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2026-05-18 11:59:00
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