Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to protect public services from austerity. 

In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Starmer said there will be more than "doom and gloom" and that better times are around the corner.

He heads for his first Labour conference as prime minister in Liverpool this weekend.

Starmer said that leaks from Downing Street, particularly from staff angered by the influence wielded by his chief of staff, Sue Gray, are destabilising his administration less than three months on from the party’s landslide general election win.

“It is my job to do something about that and I accept that responsibility. And that just damages everybody,” he said, suggesting he wants to root out the leakers and restore unity to his party.

Anger has been directed at the way Starmer and his ministers have accepted “freebie” gifts, including clothes, from wealthy donors, inviting accusations that his so-called “government of service” is no different to the Tories. 

After weeks of warnings about tough economic times ahead, as a result of the disastrous Tory management of the economy, Starmer went out of his way to make clear he was not about to usher in a new round of austerity.

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He insisted that public services were already starved of funds and could not take more cuts if they were to provide what the public needed: “I’m acutely aware that our public services are on their knees, and there will always be some that say there’s an argument for deep cuts … I ran a public service. I know what cuts feel like.

"And I know that a lot of them are cut to the bone. And therefore we have got to make sure that our public services are functioning properly.”

Starmer will make clear tomorrow he wants to be more upbeat and explain how the Labour government intends to rebuild the country.