𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A desperate Sir Keir Starmer has evoked the memory of World War I in a bid to try and stop an election disaster in a hotly contested by-election. The February 26 Gorton and Denton by-election is set to be a test of the public mood as Sir Keir finds himself deeply unpopular in opinion polls, and as his Government is mired in scandal over former US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson’s links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Both the Greens and Reform are vying to take the Greater Manchester seat from Labour, which won it at the 2024 general election with a 13,000-plus majority.

Many could argue the Prime Minister is in the trenches politically and he is set to reference the First World War during a trip to Germany today (Saturday) with 50 world leaders for this year’s Munich Security Conference. The “lamps would go out across Europe once again” should Reform UK or the Green Party win power, Sir Keir Starmer will claim.

His comments are a direct quote of Sir Edward Grey, a former British foreign secretary, who, on the eve of the First World War, warned that the lamps were “going out” all over Europe.

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The PM will try to link his domestic political woes to world peace by claiming the Green Party and Reform would pose a risk to Britain’s national security and wider European security, as he makes a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

During the address, Sir Keir will urge Europe to relinquish its reliance on the US for defence matters, and insist the UK must get closer to the EU. But he is also expected to take aim at the two political parties currently hoping to win over voters from Labour.

He will describe both Reform and the Greens as “the peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right”.

Sir Keir will add: “It’s striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much. Soft on Russia and weak on Nato – if not outright opposed.

“And determined to sacrifice the longstanding relationships that we want and need to build, on the altar of their ideology.

“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen.”

Responding to the planned remarks, a Reform spokesman said: “This is a speech from a weak Prime Minister on the verge of being hounded out of office by his own party.

“This is a man that refuses to find the money to increase defence spending and is making our country weaker and less secure.

“Reform UK believes our priority should be rebuilding our armed forces, properly funding defence to at least 3.5% of GDP, standing up to China and Russia, and strengthening our bilateral relationships.”

A Green Party source told The Times newspaper: “This is a caretaker Prime Minister running scared, losing what’s left of his authority by going abroad to a summit on our future security and making cheap smears against the Green Party, because he knows Labour have blown it in Gorton and Denton.”