Keir Starmer has arrived for his meeting with the PLP,The BBC reports that he entered to cheers from the room, which is packed with Labour MPs and peers inside, and with journalists outside,It’s all taking place behind closed doors, but I’ll bring you all the latest once we get word of how it’s gone,Keir Starmer urged Labour MPs and peers to unite in the fight against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK during the PLP meeting,He described the battle with Reform as the “fight of our lives, the fight of our times”.

Starmer added:It goes to the heart and soul of who we are as a party, as a government, and as a country, what it is to be British… And if they ever get in, they will divide, divide, divide.And it will tear this beautiful country apart.That is the fight of our times.Starmer told the packed committee room in the House of Commons that as long as he has “breath in my body, I’ll be in that fight, on behalf of the country that I love and I believe in, against those that want to tear it up”.“That is my fight, that is all of our fight, and we’re in this together,” he added.

Speaking during a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, Keir Starmer told MPs and peers:I have won every fight I’ve ever been in,I fought to change the Crown Prosecution Service so it better served victims of violence against women and girls,I fought to change the Labour Party to allow us to win an election again,People told me I couldn’t do it,And then they gradually said, you might just get over the line.

We won with a landslide majority.Every fight I’ve been in, I have won.Keir Starmer appeared “absolutely determined” during a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Downing Street sources said.Starmer apologised for appointing Lord Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US and paid tribute to his former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, during the meeting, insiders told the Press Association.As a reminder, McSweeney stepped down yesterday after advising the prime minister to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador despite his known ties to Epstein.

Starmer also reportedly told MPs he wanted to give more weight to the PLP’s views, acknowledging he had not been “open or inclusive enough”, but added he was not prepared to walk away from his mandate or the country.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said Keir Starmer’s address to Labour MPs was “excellent” but admitted it had been a “very difficult” period after revelations about Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein’s ties emerged.She said:Everyone said, Keir is a man of great integrity and he is the person with a mandate to deliver the change that all of our constituents want to see.The last few days have been very, very difficult for the country, most importantly for the victims of Epstein, difficult for the party.Mistakes have been made but lessons will be learned.

The prime minister has reportedly left now after spending over an hour addressing the PLP and it seems like it’s gone well,Sky News’s Beth Rigby posted on X: “One MP messages me to tell me PM ‘has gone for it and smashed it’ Says he ‘was honest and a bit raw’ but adds lots of MPs ‘desperately want him to succeed’,And BBC New’s Harry Farley reports that one Labour MP, who is often critical of the prime minister, texted him from inside: “If we could bottle this Keir and show it to the country we’ll walk [the next general election],”Culture secretary Lisa Nandy, who we hadn’t heard from when Andy rounded up cabinet members rallying around Keir Starmer earlier (see here and here), came out in support of the PM a few hours ago,She wrote on X:We were elected just eighteen months ago to fundamentally change this country and improve lives after more than a decade of decline.

The Prime Minister is right to take that obligation seriously and he has my full support as he works in difficult circumstances to deliver.She’s also told the BBC that she “strongly disagrees” with Anas Sarwar after the Scottish Labour leader called for Starmer’s resignation earlier today.Nandy said Starmer had “made a mistake” in appointing Peter Mandelson as ambassador, which he is “right to have owned up to” and apologised for.She said the Epstein files have showed that the country is in desperate need of change, adding:We will go out and do the job that we were elected to do..

.we are all fully behind the prime minister.Health secretary Wes Streeting has shared some of his private messages with Peter Mandelson with Sky News’s Beth Rigby in an effort to challenge allegations that he and the disgraced former US ambassador were close.In an interview on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast (here’s a clip), Streeting said of the exchanges, which date back to August 2024 and cover a mix of personal and political matters:Yeah, so this is the stuff that is going to be covered by the parliamentary inquiry.I’m happy for you to publish them.

I’m happy for people to look at them and I’m happy to answer questions about them.I’ve got nothing to hide.Streeting denied that his relationship with Mandelson was “intimate” and asked if he was embarrassed by the messages, which show that the pair spoke every few weeks, he said:I’m embarrassed to have known Peter Mandelson.The messages show that in March last year Streeting told Mandelson that he feared being “toast at the next election” in his Ilford North seat.He also said that there was no “clear answer” as to why people should vote for Labour and after Mandelson complained about the government’s approach on the economy, Streeting said that the government had “no growth strategy at all”.

Also, in July Streeting asked Mandelson’s views on the UK formally recognising a Palestinian state.He said the UK should back recognition “morally and politically” and accused Israel of “committing war crimes before our very eyes”.Mandelson also sent Streeting his statement after he was sacked by Keir Starmer, but Streeting didn’t reply.Anas Sarwar has shown he has a ruthless streak.Once one of Keir Starmer’s staunchest cheerleaders and allies, the Scottish Labour leader is now the most senior party figure to call for him to quit.

Despite anger among his colleagues and criticism that his decision to demand Starmer stands down was “idiotic, immature and self-defeating”, Sarwar’s political calculation is blunt and uncompromising.Sarwar and his advisers, having watched Scottish Labour’s polling figures plummet as the disarray inside the UK government deepened into chaos and then crisis, believe the risk of calling on Starmer to quit is justified.Sarwar, by delivering a better result in Scotland at the 2024 general election – winning 35.3% of the vote compared with Labour’s 33.7% at UK level – managed to double his party’s support levels in a matter of months.

That has now evaporated,Scottish Labour sits at 18% in the polls,Scottish Labour’s leadership have been in crisis talks since the issue of Peter Mandelson’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein grew into a fully fledged scandal last week,But Sarwar’s call for Starmer to quit is freighted with risks,If Starmer limps on in the lead-up to Scottish elections in May or Labour descends into civil war, Sarwar’s failure to deliver the coup de grace will be used by his opponents in a campaign to claim he is weak or, worse, ignored.

A successful outcome for Sarwar, such as it is, relies on Starmer quitting now.He needs Starmer to resign gracefully and with humility.And it would matter too who stands to replace him.Sarwar’s allies may be gambling that a leadership contest will produce candidates that can rouse voters who have fled to Reform or the Greens to reconsider Labour, or at the very least, lance the boil they feel Starmer’s premiership has become.However, voters may see this ruthlessness as the kind of betrayal they dislike in politicians; if they already felt let down by Labour, they may be utterly indifferent.

It may simply be too late and too self-destructive,Read Severin’s full analysis here:The former head of Homes England has announced he is joining Reform UK, as Nigel Farage said he was planning to bring more “experts” on board to advise the party,The move by Simon Dudley was also being framed as a blow for Kemi Badenoch after he had been brought into the Conservative party’s treasurers department as recently as October last year by party chairman Kevin Hollinrake,Dudley, who comes with experience in international banking and held roles at HSBC and other companies, was chair of the Ebsfleet Development Corporation until July last year, overseeing the creation of a new town the size of Chichester,“For too long, the two main parties have failed to deliver housing for Brits,” said Dudley.

“They’ve pursued a disastrous combination of extreme levels of immigration with a severe lack of new good quality homes.”Keir Starmer has arrived for his meeting with the PLP.The BBC reports that he entered to cheers from the room, which is packed with Labour MPs and peers inside, and with journalists outside.It’s all taking place behind closed doors, but I’ll bring you all the latest once we get word of how it’s gone.The No 10 leadership crisis that has preoccupied Westminster today has distracted attention from an announcement about the government allocating an extra £440m for poor councils in England.

As Max Kendix reports in the Times, the money has been released following complaints from Labour MPs representing deprived constituencies in the north of England that their constituencies were losing out under a new deprivation formula used to allocate local authority spending.Steve Reed, the housing, communities and local government secretary, said:We inherited a system where the communities that needed the most support were left behind.Today we’re turning the page.This £78bn settlement is about real change – potholes filled, streets kept clean, older people looked after, and young people having somewhere to go in their area.And with an extra £440m for areas hardest hit by historic cuts, we’re making sure every community gets its fair share.

That is all from me for today,Lucy Campbell is taking over, and she will be bringing news from Keir Starmer’s address to the PLP,In the Commons Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, told MPs that the legislation planned by the government to remove Peter Mandelson’s peerage (see 4,40pm) would probably be a general bill, not one specifically targeting Mandelson,Jones said:The government’s preference is to bring forward legislation that could be applied to any peer who is subject to breaching the rules and bringing the other place into disrepute.

He also said he was told a “bill of that nature has not been brought before Parliament since 1425”.John Swinney, Scotland’s SNP first minister, has accused Anas Sarwar of being an “opportunist” after the Scottish Labour leader said Keir Starmer should stand down.Swinney told PA Media:For years, he has been a cheerleader for Keir Starmer and he’s described himself as an old friend of Peter Mandelson, without a moment’s thought for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein.And now he suddenly wants us to believe that Keir Starmer should move on, having defended all of the terrible decisions that Keir Starmer has made.What today tells us is that Anas Sarwar is an opportunist, and that he’s prepared to use every opportunity for his own self-preservation.

Here is Severin Carrell’s analysis of Sarwar’s intervention.And here is an extract.Sarwar’s primary calculation is that Scotland’s electorate will hear and enjoy his comments about his loyalty being to Scotland.Insisting his “first priority and first loyalty” was to Scotland, he sought to justify his decision to call for Starmer to go as being one of service in the national interest …And yet it is another huge risk.Sarwar will have numerous opportunities to repeat this line in interviews, on leaflets and in televised election debates.

However, voters may see this ruthlessness as the kind of betrayal they dislike in politicians; if they already felt let down by Labour, they may be utterly indifferent.It may simply be too late and too self-destructive.Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.Nigel Farage has doubled down on culture war rhetoric at a rally where he told thousands of Reform UK’s rank and file that he was opening up the party’s lists to candidates for a general election.The Reform leader drew cheers for a speech at the Birmingham NEC where said that a Reform UK government would get rid of all solar farms and take on “leftwing teaching unions.

” He added that a Reform government would also ensure there was respect “Judeo-Christian principles underpin the entirety of our civilization”.Farage also ratcheted up the party’s claims that crime was out of control, claiming that there had been a “near total collapse of law and order” in cities such as London.However, there was a noticeable lack of new policy or other eye catching announcements at an event which has been weeks in the planning.This saw speculation that the party may have opted to hold off on announcing new defections on a day when Downing Street found itself under relentless pressure over Keir Starmer’s future.To cheers, Farage said he had asked for Reform’s lists of those seeking to be potential election candidates to be opened up from 3pm earlier in the day.

Setting out a scenario which he believed had suddenly become more likely, he said: “This whole thing could just unravel...Starmer goes..

,the party moves to the hard left there is a further exodus of capital, The bond markets lose confidence,”Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, has also issued a statement backing Keir Starmer,She suggests Starmer has agreed to be more “inclusive and collaborative”,I will be sitting alongside Keir Starmer at the PLP this evening as Deputy Leader with my full support.

He and I have been discussing in recent days, and before, how we need to do better to take the fight to Reform (as we are doing in Gorton & Denton) and by showing we are on the side of ordinary people.That also means being more inclusive and collaborative in the way we work.Keir gets that.I very much look forward to continuing that work together as one Labour team, with Keir as our leader.I know most colleagues feel the same