Sir Keir Starmer urged Labour MPs to get behind his leadership with an appeal for them to embrace “the mainstream majority” as he tried to bounce back from last week’s humiliating by-election defeat.
On the day that the Green Party’s new MP Hannah Spencer was introduced into parliament after her historic victory in what had been Labour’s seventh safest seat of Gorton and Denton, Sir Keir addressed a meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in a bid to rally support.
Labour MPs had been plotting his replacement after the party came third in last week’s by-election with many giving him only until the local and devolved elections on 7 May.
But the prime minister entered the meeting with his reputation boosted over his handling of Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
Labour MPs had just previously been lining up in the Commons chamber to praise his refusal to enter the conflict with the US and Israel and for sticking by international law under incredible pressure.
Sir Keir used the moment to urge his party not to be fool by the extremism of Zack Polanski’s Greens or Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after they took first and second place respectively in the by-election.
Speaking at the Parliamentary Labour Party, Sir Keir said: “Politics is changing, and it's changing decisively.
“But I believe, and continue to believe, that there is a mainstream majority in this country who neither want Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski as their prime minister.”
The prime minister said that under his leadership Labour is delivering “progressive change” with “moral purpose”.
“Our task is to ensure Labour is the vehicle for the modern progressive Britain that we all believe in,” he continued. “There’s no doubt about the generational change that is already happening.
“The employment rights act is the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation. The Renters Rights Act, which protects the 11 million people in rental accommodation - the biggest change again for a generation.
“What we are doing on child poverty, the NHS investment and, of course, the vision on clean power.”
Sir Keir was helped by the absence of some of his most strident critics among Labour MPs and still faced criticism in the room.
One Labour MP told The Independent: “The PM was applauded. There was some constructive criticism from quite a few including me but it wasn't a bad reception.”
However, it came after Ms Spencer was sworn in to Parliament on Monday after winning last week's poll as the first Green MP to win a by-election and a seat in the north of England becoming the party’s fifth MP.
The plumber and plasterer beat Reform UK into second place, with a majority of 4,402.
The Labour Party, which had previously held the seat at the last general election, came third with 9,364 votes.
She arrived in Westminster with her four pet greyhounds to mark the historic occasion.
Mr Polanski has set a target for the Greens to replace Labour as the party of the left in British politics with an overtly populist approach.
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