Keir Starmer voiced confidence Labour can “pull this round” as the party heads into conference, facing pressure from Reform UK’s rising electoral threat.
Currently divided and facing polls that indicate Nigel Farage's party is likely to win the next election, the prime minister said his party is facing the "fight of our times and we've all got to be in it together."
But he told the Sunday Times:
“I think we can pull this round.”
In an interview with the newspaper published after he arrived in Liverpool for Labour’s party conference, the PM added:
“It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.
You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.”
Because of the "sense of the division that Reform would bring to our country and the shattering of what we are as a patriotic country," he added, the battle is "bigger than the Labour Party."
According to Sir Keir, the Tories are "dead," and the UK will have a "fork in the road" between Labour and Reform in the next election.
The prime minister had earlier said that Mr. Farage's party intended to "rip our nation apart," calling Reform's proposals to eliminate indefinite permission to remain for lawful immigration "one of the most shocking things" he has heard them announce.
According to YouGov and More in Common, the most recent polling has shown Mr. Farage as the most likely candidate to become prime minister in the future, although Reform is currently expected to secure the most parliamentary seats in the event of an election.
Labour's onslaught on Mr. Farage was intensified by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who said that if he were given the keys to No. 10, he would pose a threat to national security.
She told a reception in Liverpool:
“Who is the party of national security? The Labour Party which faces down and stands up to Vladimir Putin?
Or Nigel Farage of the Reform party who is an apologist for that dictator?”
Meanwhile, in a message aimed at rallying a divided Labour against Reform, Sir Keir told Saturday’s Guardian: “History will not forgive us if we do not use every ounce of our energy to fight Reform. There is an enemy. There is a project which is detrimental to our country.
It actually goes against the grain of our history. It’s right there in plain sight in front of us. We have to win this battle.”
In the midst of rumors that Andy Burnham, the mayor of Great Manchester, might challenge him for the position of leader, he stated that Labour needed to "unite and fight."
What policies is Labour highlighting at the Liverpool conference?
Labour faces pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap with promises to continue drawing attention to the negative consequences of the cap for families. The party wants to expand free breakfast clubs in schools by investing £80 million to reach around 500,000 more children and 2,000 more schools.
The expansion of free breakfast clubs is aimed at breaking down barriers for working families, and shows an emphasis on helping childhood and education.
Labour is tensions over housing as anti-migrant language forms in relation to shared rental homes (HMOs) used for asylum seekers. The party is navigating a situation with calls to respond to the housing crisis and community tensions around misinformation.