I got the first 1 for free so may as well make the most of it.
Politics
Saturday 9 May 2026
Keir Starmer: I want 10 years in No 10 and will fight my challengers
The prime minister sets out his project of ‘renewal’, which includes a scheme to open up Europe for young people, admits Labour needs to act on its election drubbing, and questions donations to Reform and Nigel Farage
Keir Starmer has said he wants a decade in Downing Street and will fight anyone who challenges him for the Labour leadership.
The prime minister described his government as a “10-year project of renewal”. Asked whether he would definitely lead his party into the next general election and serve a full second term, he said: “Yes, I will.”
In an interview with The Observer, he promised to set out “with clarity” his values and convictions with an optimistic message focused on the future.
After historic losses at local, Welsh and Scottish elections, Starmer will this week seek to regain the initiative with a speech on Monday, followed by the unveiling of the government’s legislative programme in the king’s speech on Wednesday.
In his interview, Starmer also pledged to put Europe at the heart of his premiership.
He revealed that the government is close to agreeing the terms of a youth mobility scheme with the European Union.
Under the plan, which is expected to be up and running by 2027, Britons under 30 will be able to live or work in the EU. Young Europeans will also be allowed to come to the UK, with the number capped at “tens of thousands” a year. The new “youth experience visa” is set to give 18 to 30-year-olds the right to base themselves abroad for two to three years.
Negotiations are continuing and the UK is still refusing to agree to EU demands that its students pay the same university tuition fees as domestic students, rather than the higher rate paid by foreign students.
But the prime minister said a deal would be unveiled before the summer. “Brexit has held back our young people,” he said. “They should be free to work, study, travel in European countries, just as I was able to when I was growing up. That has been snatched away from young people because of Brexit. I'm not going to let Brexit stand in the way of their opportunities.”
The Treasury has been pushing for an “ambitious” youth migration deal to boost the economy. The Home Office has also expressed concerns about the impact on net migration but Starmer stressed his personal “belief” in the scheme. “We have to be closer to Europe,” he said. “I want to be full-throated about this, not holding back, no half measures in what I’m saying. We have to be bolder in the arguments that we are making in relation to our economy and in relation to our young people.”
The legislative programme is expected to include a proposed EU bill that would create a framework for a swift transfer of laws made in Brussels to the UK statute book. Reforms to special educational needs provision, an overhaul of the regulation of the water industry, plans to introduce a voluntary digital ID system and the legislation required to formally abolish NHS England are among the other measures to be introduced.
Starmer is facing calls from Labour MPs and trade unions to set out a timeline for his departure after last week’s local English elections and elections to the Senedd and Holyrood. The party lost more than 1,400 councillors in England, was obliterated in Wales and failed to cut through in Scotland.
The prime minister acknowledged that the results were “very tough” and that the whole government needed to “reflect and respond” to Labour’s battering by the voters. On Saturday, Downing Street announced that the prime minister had appointed Labour veterans Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers.
But the Labour leader was defiant in response to calls for him to quit and made clear he would not stand aside if MPs triggered a leadership contest. “I’m not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024,” he said. “I’m not going to plunge the country into chaos.”
Starmer admitted that the government had failed to set out a sufficiently positive agenda. “In the first two years or so of government, we were right to level with the public about the challenges that we faced as a country, the legacy we inherited, the international situation, but what we didn't do was convince them about the future and how things can be better,” he said. “We need to do that, and to be really clear… about not going back to the status quo.”
But he insisted support for Reform UK and the Green party was shallow and would not be replicated at a general election. “I have a strong belief that there aren't many people who actually want Zack Polanski or Nigel Farage as prime minister. I think that the mainstream majority actually want to know that we, the government, have progressive answers to the challenges that they face on a daily basis, and we need to spell out in terms and with conviction that we do have those progressive answers.”
Starmer also raised concerns about the donations made to Reform by the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. “There are so many questions that Nigel Farage has to answer in relation to this, and there is a reason that he's running away from those questions,” the prime minister said. “I think he should be subject to more scrutiny by parliament, by the media, by the public in relation to this.”
Starmer pointed to the personal gift of £5m the Reform leader received shortly before announcing he would stand in the 2024 general election, and that he has not declared. “One look at this, and you can see that this ain't right,” Starmer said. “There’s a reason that [Farage] is walking away from interviews where questions are being put to him. He doesn’t want to answer the questions because he knows that those answers are not going to be very good for him.”
Edited on 10/05/2026 at 10:07:16.
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