Sir Keir Starmer sent his chief cabinet “fixer” to attempt to calm down jittery Labour MPs in a mutinous mood after last week’s elections drubbing by Reform.
But instead of calming nerves, cabinet office minister Pat McFadden warned Labour were now facing “the fight of our lives” against Nigel Farage and his party.
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Rebel MPs claimed Mr McFadden, who spoke to up to 100 Labour MPs in a Commons committee room for an hour, was acting as a “human shield” for the embattled prime minister.
The showdown came as the fury of Labour MPs over winter fuel payment cuts reached a crescendo, after Sir Keir emphatically rejected demands for a U-turn.
The emergency meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, called at just a few hours’ notice, was officially billed by the party’s high command as a briefing on their “plan for change”.
But it was also intended to head off a mutiny by Labour MPs after shock victories by Reform UK last week in county council polls, mayoral elections and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
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No sign of a winter fuel U-turn
Some Labour MPs were privately critical of Sir Keir for not facing his backbench critics. Others stayed away, claiming the meeting was pointless because the government was not listening to their concerns.
As a result, many of the party’s most high-profile rebels on winter fuel payments, benefit cuts and other issues were absent. Veteran left-winger Diane Abbot attended but left before the end, refusing to talk to journalists.
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Many of those attending were younger MPs elected last July and so the mood was not as acrimonious as the leadership might have feared. Mr McFadden was applauded at the end of the meeting.
Speaking with Treasury ministers Darren Jones and James Murray alongside him but no Rachel Reeves, who was visiting Scotland, Mr McFadden gave no hint of concessions on controversial policies.
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‘Battle for the future’
Instead, he launched an attack on Mr Farage’s Reform, which senior cabinet ministers acknowledge is now a real threat to Labour and may become the party’s main rivals.
According to a government source present at the meeting, Mr McFadden began his speech by saying: “The big point I want to make to you is that a new fight is taking shape.
“It’s a fight between our values and a nationalist politics of the right. It’s a battle for the very future and the heart and soul of our country.”
Mr McFadden was said to have criticised Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the new mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, who in her victory speech vowed Reform would “reset Britain to its glorious past”.
‘We have to win’
“That is not our project, and it won’t be our project,” Mr McFadden said, as he said Labour was focused on the country’s “glorious future”.
He added: “Labour is always at its best when we look to the future. This is the fight of our lives, this is the generational fight in this new political era.
“I want to tell you we have to take on this new fight for the future – and we have to win.”
Mr McFadden addressed Labour MPs after Sir Keir dismayed many Labour MPs in a clash with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch at PMQs by refusing to admit he was wrong to remove winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.
