'Put up or shut up': Lord Blunkett brands Starmer plotting 'destructive', telling Labour there's 'more at stake than ambition'
Lord Blunkett has told LBC that Labour ministers should "put up or shut up," as the former MP labelled party in-fighting over Starmer "destructive".
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Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, the former MP told Labour members to "put ambition on the back burner" as he likened the current political situation to that of Gordon Brown in 2008.
Insisting there is no point in "wounding the beast" if "you don't finish it off", Lord Blunkett appealed to Labour to put party ahead of politics where the Prime Minister's future is concerned.
"Having signed up publicly to supporting the Prime Minister and having reiterated that very clearly yesterday afternoon and following the extraordinary meeting last night, I think there's only one message, which is: If you have ambition, put it on the back burner, just for the moment, please, because there's more at stake here and if no one's prepared to put their head on the block, then other people shouldn't shoot."
"I used to call it, when Gordon Brown was under attack in 2008/9, it's not quite applicable now, but I used to say: "Put up or shut up".
"And the shutting up from behind the scenes would be very welcome because it's destructive. You can wound a beast and if you don't finish it off, nobody's gained.
"And I don't want Keir Starmer to be a wounded beast. I want to be the Prime Minister of our country, doing a job for our country."
Lord Blunkett's comments come as Sir Keir Starmer vowed to fight on, telling Andrew Marr that he was wrong to question the Prime Minister's future.
"You're wrong. I am going to prove you wrong. I am going to fight," he told Marr on Tuesday.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer thanked his "strong" and "united" Cabinet after he clung to his position as PM over his handling of the Mandelson scandal.
In a speech this afternoon he said he would "never walk away from the country I love".
The Prime Minister said on a visit to Hertfordshire: "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, and that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live and let live country, a diverse country where, given half the chance, will help each other out.
"That is who we are as a country, and I want to serve every single part of that country, the country that I love."