Keir Starmer

The Labour Party is mulling over a decision to add electoral reform to its manifesto after party activists vote to end the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. More than one-quarter of Labour branches are urging Sir Keir Starmer to dump the party’s historical support for FPTP voting in favour of proportional representation. Calls for Labour to change its stance has grown over […]

Keir Starmer is facing mounting criticism from within his own party. JAMES BALL assesses how seriously he should take it. Keir Starmer is, we’re told, a politician in crisis. Despite the devastating effect of coronavirus on the UK and on the standing of the government, the Labour Party lags behind the Conservatives in the polls, his personal […]

A Welsh Labour MP has told Keir Starmer’s critics to “come into the real world” as she lashed out at her party’s “left-wing” antics. Carolyn Harris, the Labour leader’s parliamentary private secretary (PPS), dismissed criticisms of his leadership as “nonsense” and not being based in “the real world”. Harris was joined by Welsh Labour’s deputy leader […]

Downing Street is reportedly preparing for Boris Johnson to fight Andy Burnham at the next general election. Sir Keir’s leadership has been called into question over the past 10 days following a series of poor polling numbers – sparking speculation of a leadership challenge if the numbers do not improve. Now Downing Street believes that the most […]

Sir Keir Starmer said he would not take advice from a prime minister who “wrote two versions of every column as a journalist and who proposed Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize”. Sir Keir and Boris Johnson had been debating whether to extend the eviction ban set to expire on February 21 when a row […]

No analysis of the state of Britain today can be possible without an understanding of why Labour finds itself in its current position. Its failure to properly address prejudice in the party before the last election are at the heart of that. FRANCIS BECKETT has had access to insider accounts of the key meetings under […]

Just four per cent of the public think Labour has got worse under Sir Keir Starmer, fresh polling has shown. According to an Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by the Evening Standard, 48% of participants think Labour has changed for the better under Sir Keir while 36% believed he “has what it takes” to become prime […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on what parties of the left and centre can learn from Portugal. As I near the end of my second lockdown German course I am getting closer to the fluency I had around forty years ago before I started losing it (German, that is.) Is it too much if I do my German […]

Reports suggesting there was an argument between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer after Prime Minister’s Questions have been denied. The two leaders had clashed in the Commons after the Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of repeatedly calling for the UK to stay in the European Medicines Agency after Brexit, suggesting such a move would […]

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of twisting the “truth” for the purpose of “gags” during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). The leader of the opposition said Johnson had a habit of hiding behind “pre-prepared gags” instead of answering tough questions. Probing the prime minister on the government’s border strategy, Sir Keir asked: “With new variants coming […]

Former minister Jeremy Hunt has warned that Keir Starmer is the biggest threat to the Tories since Tony Blair. Hunt claimed that the UK can have a “1948 moment” in rebuilding the country after the Covid-19 pandemic, providing an opportunity for the country to reform in a similar way to Clement Attlee’s Labour government after […]

The Labour Party has attacked Jeremy Corbyn for “wasting time and money” after he lost a court battle to release documents relating to his suspension from the parliamentary party. On Wednesday, a judge dismissed Corbyn’s case, saying he had “sufficient evidence” to fight a High Court battle over the suspension. In a direct attack at Corbyn’s […]

Boris Johnson has used Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) to call for Sir Keir Starmer to apologise over his coronavirus stances. Sir Keir said he would be speaking to bereaved families on Wednesday and asked the prime minister what message he would like to send to them. Johnson responded: “The message I would give those families is […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he has been told to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. Sir Keir wrote on Twitter: “This morning I was notified that I must self isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. “I have no […]

GLEN O’HARA assesses the Labour leader’s performance since he took the reins, and his ultimate prospects. Sir Keir Starmer has spent nearly a year now presenting himself as a diligent, calm and intelligent leader – a kind of ‘Mister Competence’, in contradistinction not just to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, but also to his immediate predecessor, Jeremy […]

Labour’s Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson’s government of a “very foolish gamble” with hoping that Donald Trump would sign up to a post-Brexit “mini” trade deal before his exit. Tariffs of £5.6 billion were imposed by former president Trump’s administration in retaliation for state support given to Airbus, with products including Scotch whisky badly affected […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has suggested Priti Patel may have broken the ministerial code by advocating border closures against government policy. In comments first reported by political website Guido Fawkes, Patel is said to have told the Conservative Friends of India group: “On ‘should we have closed our borders earlier’, the answer is yes. I was […]

The SNP’s leader in the Commons has questioned Boris Johnson over his ability to be a “moral” leader following remarks by Theresa May. Blackford also asked Johnson if he would overturn cuts to Britain’s foreign aid budget during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).  “This morning the former prime minister accused the current prime minister of abandoning moral […]

Sir Keir Starmer has called Boris Johnson “pathetic” for ordering Conservative MPs to abstain from a vote on extending a £20 weekly rise in Universal Credit, and said that “in their heart of hearts” Tories would back Labour’s move. The prime minister was working to lessen the scale of a potential revolt from his within […]

The first stage of Jeremy Corbyn’s legal battle with Labour over his suspension from the parliamentary party will be heard by the High Court.  Lawyers for the former opposition leader are applying for the disclosure of documents ahead of a possible legal challenge over his suspension. At a remote hearing on Monday afternoon, Judge Lisa […]

Not all pro-Europeans think Keir Starmer got his position wrong on the Brexit deal. Desmond Fitzgerald (Letters, TNE #226), thinks that Starmer should be ashamed for whipping Labour MPs to vote for the Brexit deal, but I think Starmer was right: 1. The vote wasn’t Leave or Remain, it was between a bad deal (terms […]

Boris Johnson has been slapped down for a series of “not truths” as he clashed in the Commons with Keir Starmer over Covid-19 and free school meals. Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle intervened and forced Johnson to withdraw the remark made at Prime Minister’s Questions, advising both leaders to help in “tidying up how this parliament behaves”. […]

Jeremy Corbyn will take the first step towards a High Court battle against Labour next week over his suspension from the parliamentary party. The former opposition leader will have a pre-action disclosure application heard in London on Monday afternoon, court officials told the PA news agency. Lawyers for Corbyn are expected to ask a judge […]

Well, it finally came. For a year speaker Lindsay Hoyle has been tolerating Boris Johnson’s antics in prime minister’s questions – the ignoring of questions, the deliberate misnaming of the third-largest party, the sheer disdain of spending 30 minutes being held to account; 30 minutes which, in happier times, he could have knocked out a half-arsed column […]

Boris Johnson has claimed that Marcus Rashford was a better leader at holding the government to account than Sir Keir Starmer, in a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session which saw the prime minister rebuked for mistruths. Johnson said no one was happy with the images of inadequate school meal parcels that have surfaced over […]

James O’Brien has accused companies distributing free school meals of ‘profiteering’ after pictures emerged of parents receiving meagre packages surfaced online. Downing Street has pushed for an investigation after parents began sharing pictures online of what they have been given to feed their children for ten days. Children’s Minister Vicky Ford said she would “urgently” look into the matter after one […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will use a speech to lay out how Britain can rise up after the pandemic, using the creation of the NHS after the Second World War as inspiration. He will tell the Britons that they “can build a country worthy of the sacrifices” made during the pandemic in the same […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he does not think there is a case for rejoining the EU, or “major renegotiation” of the trading arrangements set out in Boris Johnson’s trade deal. Sir Keir, who was a prominent voice in the campaign for a second referendum and in his leadership election promised to “defend […]

Labour could dump Sir Keir Starmer in favour of a leader keen to rejoin the EU, a former frontbencher has warned. Former Labour whip Rosie Duffield said a majority of party MPs were “desperate to rejoin the EU at heart”. Speaking on HuffPost UK’s Commons People podcast, Duffield – who was forced to resign in May for […]

Politicians are to be recalled to parliament as Boris Johnson plans tougher Covid-19 restrictions for England. The prime minister’s televised address is expected to take place at 8pm on Monday, with reports that Johnson could put every part of the country into Tier 4, with schools moving to online learning. 78% of England’s population is […]

The chair of a pro-EU lobbying group has urged Sir Keir Starmer to lead a cross-party “progressive alliance” to reform UK politics in the wake of Brexit. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the European Movement – a grass-roots group focused on promoting close ties between the UK and Europe – said the first-past-the-post system of voting allowed “a small clique” […]

A pollster has warned that Keir Starmer’s vote in support of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is likely to make the fight in Scotland even more difficult. Sir John Curtice, a leading pollster and professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the SNP’s opposition to the Brexit deal could help the SNP win a majority at […]