Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Tuesday to never walk away from his job to change Britain, brushing off a challenge to his authority by the Labour leader in Scotland and other figures in the party who have called on him to quit.

Under pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington because of the Labour veteran's close ties to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Starmer came out fighting, urging his party to fight the real enemy - the populist Reform UK party - rather than among themselves.

He used a visit to a community centre in southern England to try to show that his political career was anything but dead, a day after the biggest challenge to his authority when Scottish leader Anas Sarwar called on him to quit and he lost a second aide in as many days.

"I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country," Starmer told an audience. "I will never walk away from the people that I'm charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love."

Starmer said the real fight was with "the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance that will tear our country apart."

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 10, 2026) (UK POOL - Broadcast: No use UK Digital: No use UK, except UK newspapers.)

1. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER ENTERING ROOM DURING COST OF LIVING EVENT WITH CITIZENS

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER, SAYING:

“There are some people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them. And I say to them: I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country. I will never walk away from the people that I'm charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country that I love.”

3. WHITE FLASH

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER, SAYING:

“The fight coming up in politics, the real fight, is not in the Labour Party, it's with the right wing politics that challenges that; the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance that will tear our country apart. That is the fight that we are in. And I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body.”

5. WHITE FLASH

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER, SAYING:

“I know that whatever is going on in the world and it's volatile out there in the world at the moment, and whatever is going on in the turmoil of politics - there's been quite a lot of that going on in the last few days. I know that for you and for millions of people, what matters most is the cost of living. Actually paying the bills, getting through, improving living standards, public services that work. These are the things that matter hugely for people and they're the things that we were charged with changing when we won the election. And I know that's what matters most from personal experience.”

7. STARMER DURING Q&A WITH PEOPLE

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER, SAYING:

“For many people, the energy bill is the one at the moment they worry about the most, particularly in the winter period. And so what we're doing is in April, we're taking £150 off the energy bills for every single household. So £150 off the bill. For those six million who are the sort of poorer households in the country, we've already taken 150 off. So for them, there's both elements of this, which is really important.”

9. WHITE FLASH

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER, SAYING:

“I should say there's another element of this, and that is what's going on internationally, because the conflict in Ukraine doubled your energy bills. So Ukraine isn’t some distant conflict where it's a battle between right and wrong, which it is and we stand with the Ukrainians. It's actually something that comes effectively through your letterbox every month because the bills have gone up. They're still 40% higher because of the conflict in Ukraine. So the work we're doing internationally to try to get to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is really important in its own right for Ukrainians, for Europe and for us, is also really important for getting our energy bills down. And that'll get it down by a lot more than £150. So both of those need to come together.”

11. STARMER SITTING DOWN WITH PEOPLE