Keir: Bring it on

Labour chief challenges 'failure' Sunak to face him at ballot box

- LIZZY BUCHAN

KEIR Starmer has dared "abject failure" Rishi Sunak to stop stalling and face him in a general election.

In his first interview of 2024 - just after a Mirror survey found two-thirds want to go to the polls by the summer and a third "as soon as possible" - the Labour leader said yesterday: "Bring it on, I say. We're ready.

"We've been ready for a long time. We've been working four years for this. 2024 is the year we get the chance to change the country for the better." Speaking to us at Labour HQ in London, he added: "The country is ready, your poll shows that. And that's because people can't afford to wait any longer for this Government to finally put itself before the electorate." And in a direct message to Mirror readers, he said: "Hope is on the way.

The power of change is in your hands." The challenge came as the Institute for Government recommended that the Prime Minister authorise talks between Mr Starmer's top team and the Civil Service to prepare for a Labour government.

The think-tank warns in a document out today: "Time is running out if the PM decides to call an election in May."