Starmer's survival speech: What he said... and what he meant.

LONDON — Keir Starmer insisted Monday that he’s not going anywhere. In a forthright speech, delivered against the backdrop of Labour MPs calling for him to exit Downing Street, the British prime minister warned his party that the public wouldn’t reward Labour for switching leaders. “Like every government, we’ve made mistakes… but we got the big political choices right,” he said. Starmer is under pressure after Labour lost nearly 1,500 councillors in local elections last week, was ousted from the Welsh Senedd after 27 years, and failed to dislodge the SNP in the Scottish parliament. On early reviews, Starmer’s speech appears to have done little to calm Labour nerves. Shortly after he finished speaking, Labour MP David Smith called for the “ordered and dignified” departure of the prime minister, warning in an open letter that Labour has “three years to avoid the disaster that the populism of the Right or the left would bring us.” Another Labour backbencher, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Starmer looked “panicky and out of his depth.” “I watched that, thinking of all my constituents who told me on their doorsteps in the last few weeks that he has to go and they won’t vote Labour until he does. There was nothing there for them.” POLITICO has deciphered Starmer’s key remarks to highlight what the embattled leader is actually trying to tell the public — and more importantly, his rowdy MPs. ‘Dark path’ What he said: …