LIVERPOOL — A leading cabinet minister has urged colleagues to back off their attacks on Keir Starmer and demands for Rachel Reeves to turn on the spending taps as the annual Labour conference kicked off in Liverpool on Sunday.

Speaking at a POLITICO event at the Labour conference, Starmer ally and recently-appointed Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, said the prime minister “deserves far more credit” for winning the 2024 election.

Starmer has faced open complaints about his leadership from within the Labour party and demands for his administration to change course. The complaints come as Starmer and Labour’s national polling remains well below that of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

In the past week, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham went public in attacking the PM for his approach to governance and insisted the chancellor should borrow more to fund public spending. 

However, McFadden argued it’s “easy to hold placards,” adding: “People perhaps underestimate how rare Labour victories have been. They don’t fall from the sky. They are hard won.”

He continued: “It’s not just a matter of publishing a manifesto and saying vote for me … Keir deserves far more credit than he’s getting for winning that trust and completing that task.”

Internal Labour critics have also urged the government to raise taxes and to end the two-child limit on benefits, among other demands. 

But McFadden told POLITICO critics should show “a bit of solidarity” with Starmer and Reeves in their efforts to be cautious with the public finances. 

“The whole government owns all the government’s fiscal decisions,” he said, adding it’s wrong for MPs and ministers to demand changes but insist funding them is “a matter for the chancellor.”