Labour MPs quit in droves with 55 calling for Sir Keir Starmer to stand down

‘Time and time again, speaking with voters at their doors, I heard little dislike for local councillors nor for the Labour Party, but the animosity towards the Prime Minister was clear from every voter who was choosing to vote for another party or considering doing so. It reminded me of the reaction I got when speaking with voters under a former leader.’

The Labour leader admitted he had doubters in his own party as he pledged to put closer ties with the EU at the heart of his leadership ‘reset’.

Labour lost more than 1,400 councillors and was ousted from power in Wales, triggering widespread anger within the Labour ranks.

The Prime Minister said: ‘The election results last week were tough. Very tough.

‘That hurts and it should hurt. I get it. I feel it. I take responsibility.’

Turning to his own future, he vowed: ‘And I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again. Chaos that did lasting damage to this country.

‘A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again.’

But he also warned party faithful: ‘For the British people, tired of a status quo that has failed them, change cannot come fast enough.

‘Truth be told, I am not sure they believe that we care. I am not sure they believe that we see their lives.’

He also accused Nigel Farage of being ‘not just a grifter but a chancer’ following Reform UK’s staggering gains in the local elections, with more than 1,400 new councillors voted in.

The do-or-die speech failed to turn the tide of backbench Labour MPs turning on their leader.

Moderate backbencher David Smith said immediately after the address that he wanted the Prime Minister to lay out a timetable for leaving office.

Others backed him. David Pinto-Duschinsky, Labour MP for Hendon, told Sky News that the Prime Minister was ‘rising to the occasion’.

This is a breaking news story… More to follow…