Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will lead Labour into the next general election as he argued for closer links with EU, saying Britain is \u201cturning our back\u201d on the Brexit years. <\/p>\n
The prime minister warned that the split with the EU had left the UK unable to use its influence internationally. <\/p>\n
In an interview after the worst week of his tenure in No 10, he added: “We are not reversing Brexit but we are turning our back on the Britain of the Brexit years that we’ve had for the last decade.<\/p>\n
“That has seen a Britain that has turned inward, a Britain that has not been able to assert itself and influence others on the world stage or the European stage.”<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer said he intended to change the country (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) (PA Wire)He also admitted that appointing Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador was a \u201cmistake\u201d, two weeks after the scandal surrounding the Labour grandee first engulfed the government.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir has faced calls to resign as the controversy has rocked Downing Street. <\/p>\n
But, speaking to the Sun on Sunday at the Munich Security Conference, he came out fighting against suggestions he should quit.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI won the leadership of the Labour Party when people said I wouldn\u2019t. I changed the Labour Party when people said I couldn\u2019t. I won an election when people said we wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now I intend to change the country \u2013 whatever other people say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Keir also insisted he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d lead the Labour party into the next election. He said he would not list his mistakes \u201cin rank order\u201d but appointing Lord Mandelson was one of them. <\/p>\n
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar launched an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Sir Keir Starmer after the Lord Mandelson scandal (Lesley Martin\/PA) (PA Wire)Speaking at the conference, Sir Keir had earlier insisted he \u201cended the week much stronger\u201d than he started it after a period of political turbulence.<\/p>\n
He also said the UK should more closely align with the EU economically as well as on defence.<\/p>\n
He argued the UK should \u201cmove closer to the single market\u201d in certain markets, where it was in the interest of both sides, just months before the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum result which ultimately took the Britain out of the EU. <\/p>\n
Three members of Sir Keir\u2019s team have resigned (POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had said on Monday that the prime minister should quit in the wake of the scandal around Lord Mandelson\u2019s links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
But the attempt to oust Sir Keir failed, with members of the cabinet publicly backing the PM in the hours after Mr Sarwar\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
But fresh questions about Sir Keir\u2019s judgment emerged later in the week in a row over the appointment of his former spin doctor Lord Doyle to the House of Lords – after the aide hit the headlines for campaigning for a paedophile councillor.<\/p>\n
The departure of the head of the civil service Sir Chris Wormald also prompted criticism of negative briefings in Government, while senior Labour women suggested the string of scandals had exposed a \u201cboys\u2019 club\u201d within Downing Street.<\/p>\n
Sir Chris was the third senior figure to quit the Government in the past week, following Sir Keir\u2019s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications director Tim Allan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will lead Labour into the next general election as he argued for closer links with EU, saying Britain is \u201cturning our back\u201d on the Brexit years. The prime minister warned that the split with the EU had left the UK unable to use its influence internationally. In an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n