The comments made by John Slinger, the Labour MP for Rugby, on 11 May 2026.
I haven’t ever equivocated or hedged my bets about whether Keir Starmer should remain Prime Minister.
I’ve always been clear: he must stay.
Here’s why.
Keir was the right person to lead Labour after Jeremy Corbyn, the right leader to change the Labour Party and make us electable again, and definitely the right leader in government.
I’ve not supported the Prime Minister for personal gain, nor because I’ve been told to, and certainly not to make myself popular either within the Labour Party or with the public. I’ve done so, and continue to do so, because I believe, sincerely, that Keir is the right person to lead our country.
I completely understand that some colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party, the wider party and many members of the public don’t share my view. I respect their views, but I want people to understand why I support Keir Starmer. As a party, and as a country, we need to learn to disagree agreeably. We must set a good example at this difficult time.
What the Prime Minister’s speech told us
Over the last few days, following the local election results, and before the PM’s speech today, I set out my thinking in LabourList and on my Substack. Keir’s speech today has only reinforced my belief that he should stay as Prime Minister.
In the Prime Minister’s speech we saw more of the person, a man from a working class background, who has committed himself to public service. We saw passion, someone who knows that this isn’t just the fight of his political life, but one far more important than that. He said he will “never stop fighting for the decent, respectful, diverse country that I love, I will never give up on the hope we can unlock in this country.” He has accepted responsibility as a leader, but rightly acknowledges that taking responsibility must include responsibility for taking action to resolve things. And finally, the plan: whether on the vital need for us as a country not to go back to the status quo ante after this recent Iran war-related crisis, but to make the long term changes we need to make, or closer ties to Europe, or much more support for our younger and future generations, with far more to come on Wednesday.
A complete break with the past
In moving beyond the status quo, in his speech today, the PM set out that we need a “complete break” with the past. He set out that we need to build a stronger and fairer country. He mentioned renationalising British Steel, he spoke of strengthening ever further our vital relationship with the European Union, and he spoke movingly about the need to offer a brighter future for our young people, in which every young person can realise their potential.
This last point has been one of my priorities since becoming an MP. As long ago as January 2025 I called for a Youth Triple Lock and for more resources and attention to be directed towards young people. I’ve been calling for this repeatedly since then, as well as for a Cabinet level Minister for the Younger and Future Generations.
Action this day
We’ll hear more from the Prime Minister and the government on Wednesday with the King’s Speech, which will set out our legislative programme for the next session of Parliament. The Prime Minister was clear in his speech that we must bring the same urgency with which the government acted over the Scunthorpe steelworks to “everything now”. This is something I wholeheartedly agree with, and I myself called for an “action this day” approach to government that takes a wartime mentality, much like the one that Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones spoke about recently when he said we need the Covid vaccine taskforce model to be applied across Whitehall.
The mainstream parties such as Labour must be able to demonstrate clearly to the public that democratic government should, can and will change their lives for the better, and that impediments to this will be overcome.
Why I oppose calls for the Prime Minister to resign
In addition to what I’ve already written about the Labour leadership, here’s why I support Keir Starmer as Prime Minister and oppose calls for him to resign, or to set out a timetable to resign.
Despite being hugely talented, and potentially being leadership material, none of the alternative leaders mentioned have set out their stall effectively enough on how to resolve the deep-set problems facing our country. What is at stake is the political leadership of the fifth largest economy in the world. The public expect us to treat this accordingly. We seem to be talking about the leadership of the Labour Party as if it’s something that can just be given to people relatively casually, rather like the presidency of a debating society.
Keir Starmer is not an accidental leader. He won a leadership election, reformed the Labour Party to ensure it was electable again, led us through opposition into an election campaign, won a huge majority and has led the country through a difficult period.
Why I wouldn’t support a challenge, even if there were credible alternatives
Even if there were a phalanx of alternatives, of “big beasts”, each capable of being Prime Minister and having set out their strategic vision, I would still not support a leadership challenge. Why?
Firstly, Keir Starmer has been a good leader, a good Prime Minister, who has begun the mammoth task of rebuilding a country reeling from years of underinvestment, deep-set structural problems and a deeply unstable international environment. He’s led a government that has stabilised and grown the economy, invested in public services, begun to carry out the long-term strategic reforms of our health system and our infrastructure, brought down NHS waiting lists, increased workers’ rights and the minimum and national living wage, and much more.
Secondly, the public would not forgive us for plunging the country back into the chaos that beset the last Conservative government, when they thought that replacing Prime Ministers would solve the country’s problems. We need stability and we need a grown-up approach to governing, and also to levelling with the public about the challenges that we face and what will be necessary to resolve them.
Another reason is how this must make us look internationally at a time of great peril overseas. Leaders and populations of foreign countries must be looking on aghast as some of my colleagues consider defenestrating a leader who won a major majority pretty much at the first sign of trouble, less than two years after he won big.
The political moment demands seriousness
We mustn’t replicate in politics, when the stakes are so high, some of the worst elements of the modern age: doomscrolling on social media, doom-headlining in the media, unrealistic demands for simple solutions to complex problems, looking to blame others rather than accept our own responsibility, a lack of decorum in political debate, or allowing frustration to turn into destructive anger and recrimination rather than into resolve to tackle challenges and unlock opportunities.
Pinning all our current problems as a government or as a country on the Prime Minister is unreasonable. It’s about all of us in the Parliamentary Labour Party, and in the wider labour movement, pulling together and accepting our responsibility. The Prime Minister has a responsibility, but so do cabinet ministers, ministers and MPs to set out the vision of this Labour government and to persuade the public about what we are doing. More widely, all of us in the party should now pull together, rally behind this Labour Prime Minister, and this Labour government, which is already delivering huge change in our country.
That is what I will be focused on, in supporting the Prime Minister in doing.