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Sir Keir Starmer went on the defensive after a journalist revealed a member of his "top team" held the Prime Minister responsible for the country's disastrous local election results. Sir Keir was left squirming after Sky News Political Editor Beth Rigby said she received a message from one of his allies saying he was "the reason that Labour risks handing the country to Reform".

In response, the beleaguered PM said: "What I say to that is we won a landslide victory in July 2024, I led our party to that victory, that is a five-year mandate to change the country. Yes there are difficult conditions, the inheritance was terrible, the international context is very, very difficult but we need to inject that hope and convince people that things can and will get better and that's why in the coming days, I will set out the further steps that we will take."

Despite yet more pressure piling on the Labour leader, he insisted he would not be stepping down.

"I'm not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos," he said in the interview.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK made gains across the country as hundreds of Labour councillors were voted out.

Mr Farage said the results showed a "truly historic shift in British politics" away from the old era of Labour and Conservative domination, vowing "the best is yet to come" for his party.

Sir Keir faces further heavy losses as vote counting continues throughout Friday in both English local elections and contests for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd.

He described the results as "really tough" and said his party has "made unnecessary mistakes".

Sir Keir earlier said "tough days like this don't weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised".