Labour Party members have voted in favour of bringing in a £15-an-hour minimum wage, following the resignation of a shadow cabinet minister over the issue.
Andy McDonald quit Keir Starmer’s frontbench team on Monday claiming he had been ordered by the party leader to argue against backing a hike in pay rates.
The leftwinger resigned as shadow employment rights secretary and launched an attack on Starmer as making the party “more divided than ever”.
Starmer has said he would not back the £15 proposal and will press on with plans to raise it to the lower rate of £10.
The Labour leader insisted winning elections is more important than unity as he said McDonald was “wrong” to allege the divide has widened within the party since he took over from Jeremy Corbyn.
Starmer has also refused to reinstate the party whip to Corbyn until he apologises for his controversial remarks in response to a report on anti-Semitism within the party.
The leader denied he was happy to see the departure of McDonald, the last ally of the former leader in his top team.
Speaking to BBC News in Brighton, Starmer said: “My focus is on how we get Labour into position to win a general election.”
He defended the “tough decisions to change our party”, which included changing the rules to mean any future leadership contender would need greater support from Labour MPs, in a move seen as an attempt to shut out radical challengers.
Starmer accepted “there will be some people who don’t agree with those changes” but urged critics to “abide by them”.
Asked what is most important to him, unity within the party or winning, Starmer said: “Winning. Winning a general election.
“I didn’t come into politics to vote over and over again in Parliament and lose, and then tweet about it. I came into politics to go into government to change millions of lives for the better.”
Starmer has also angered the left by shelving Labour plans for the nationalisation of major energy firms, after committing to “common ownership” during the leadership campaign.
The Labour leader insisted common ownership and nationalisation are “worlds apart” and said the pledges he made to party members remain “values that I hold dear”.