Keir Starmer will make a major intervention this week, pledging a progressive fightback and promising the UK will reject the division and hate fuelled by the far right. In a speech later this week, Starmer is expected to say the UK is “at a crossroads” and that the government will lead the fight against “decline and division”. “There is a recognition, I think, that we need to go further on this,” one ally of the prime minister said. As well as spending time last week in the voting lobbies and tea rooms with MPs, Starmer hosted a delegation for breakfast in No 10 on Monday morning. It prompted Starmer to issue a strongly worded statement to the Guardian saying the UK “would never surrender” its flag to far-right agitators.