Statement from Ruth on Keir Starmer

Over the past day a number of people have emailed and messaged me to ask about my thoughts on the Prime Minister.I support Keir remaining as Prime Minister and I was one of the 100 MPs who signed a letter which said this.

The local election results both across London and across England were clearly poor for the Labour Party. It is important that we reflect on this, listen and take serious efforts to fix the problems that were behind these poor results.

However, I do not believe that now is the right time to change Prime Minister, nor do I believe that there is an obvious successor who could step in at short notice in the event that the Prime Minister is forced to resign.

The conflict in Iran, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the global economic crisis requires a strong and tested Prime Minister and I believe that Keir is the right person for this job. The recent history of the Conservative party changing leader mid-term is a lesson in why we should not lurch from one Prime Minister to another. I am not clear what would be achieved by changing leader, nor what they would do differently, or change that would tackle the wider economic and political issues facing the UK right now.

I know that it has been a difficult few weeks for the Government. It is frustrating that even as the government is delivering on our values and manifesto commitments, the messages people hear through mainstream news and increasingly, social media, are not “landing”, judging by conversations I had on the doorsteps over recent weeks. Whether that is because of how news is now delivered or because it’s more difficult for a party in power to compete against simple distorted messaged, remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, I believe that the focus should be to continue with the important work that the Government has been undertaking, such as getting our frontline public services back on their feet, investing in clean and green homegrown energy and tackling the scourge of child poverty, and to improve how people hear about these policies,

Under Keir’s leadership we have seen the Government lift the two-child limit, introduce free breakfast clubs across England, put police officers back on the street, take our railways back into public ownership and so much more. This work must continue and the Government needs to have stable and secure leadership without being mired in a lengthy leadership race.