Keir starmer

It was all going so well for Sir Keir Starmer. He won the Labour leadership handsomely, appointed a fresh shadow cabinet, and was riding a wave of blessed non-scrutiny thanks to Covid-19. He had begun to make amends to the Jewish community for his party’s racist vendetta against them and there was a solid chance that political correspondents would learn how to spell his name. Then, it leaked. An 860-page dossier prepared in the final months of Corbyn’s tenure which, going by the reports of those who have seen it, essentially exculpates the party of mishandling anti-Semitism charges. It says these complaints were not treated differently, a central allegation made

Keir Starmer, the newly elected leader of the Labour party, has taken no prisoners with his cabinet reshuffle. Corbyn allies like Richard Burgon are out, and Ed Miliband is back. Here is the full make-up of Starmer’s top team: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Anneliese DoddsFormerly: John McDonnell An Oxford PPE graduate, Dodds is a long time supporter of Starmer’s leadership campaign. She has served as a shadow Treasury minister since July 2017. She had even been tipped for promotion by the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in early March, as he said he was ‘hoping she gets a significant role in the new administration’. Dodds is the first woman to be

It was not the acceptance speech he could have anticipated making when the campaign for the Labour leadership began many months ago, but it was one Keir Starmer used to define the type of leader he would be during the pandemic, and beyond. Recorded before he was confirmed as Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, Starmer spent most of his speech addressing, not Labour’s electoral crisis, but the national emergency provoked by Covid-19. Significantly, he talked to the country first, rather than his party’s members – 56.2 per cent of whom had just made him leader. Starmer positioned his Labour party as the solution to the country’s current ills Elected promising to reunite

First impressions matter in politics. Once the public have made their mind up about a politician, they rarely change it. This is why the first 100 days in charge are so important for any new leader. Get off to a good start, and everything is possible. Stumble out of the gate and your race is run. Keir Starmer is widely expected to be announced as the new Labour leader on Saturday, but he faces the prospect of having to keep his distance from the electorate for the bulk of his first 100 days. The pandemic means that he won’t have the choices that normally come to the winner. There can

There’s still a month of the Labour leadership contest to go but most MPs have already concluded that Keir Starmer will win. The shadow Brexit secretary has led in every category so far: MPs, unions and local parties. As the contest enters its final stage, polling suggests the membership agree and Sir Keir will sail through. His closest rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, is now seen as a ten-to-one outsider. One bookmaker is already paying out on a Starmer victory. But if the race seems all but over, the conversation about what he’ll do as Labour leader is very much on-going. Is he the leader that the party’s moderates have craved to

Spare a thought for the Corbynites. Not only have they spectacularly crashed the only viable parliamentary vehicle for the left, they’ve also managed to screw up what was meant to be a socialist coronation. So it must be particularly difficult for David Graeber, an anthropology professor at the LSE and avid Corbyn supporter. He tweeted earlier today that he would consider emigrating if the soft left former director of public prosecutions won the leadership race: Given the odds of a Starmer win, Professor Graeber should probably start packing for his new life now. Could Mr S suggest Venezuela or Cuba as possible destinations for the fleeing academic?

Keir Starmer has complained to the head of the civil service after a spat between political journalists and Downing Street. The row broke out after No. 10 insisted that only ‘senior, specialist members of the lobby’ could attend a briefing with Brexit negotiator David Frost. Several journalists decided to walk out of No. 10 as a result. But now Sir Keir has come to their rescue. The Labour leadership hopeful has written to Sir Mark Sedwill criticising Boris Johnson’s media operation. In the letter, which carries Starmer’s official campaign logo, the former Corbyn loyalist complained that briefing attendees ‘should not be determined by political favouritism’. The Holborn MP goes on

Keir Starmer has made it through to the final round of the Labour leadership contest, having secured the backing of shop workers’ union Usdaw. The party’s rules state that a candidate needs to get the backing of three affiliated organisations, of which two must be trade unions (or the nomination of at least 33 constituency Labour parties), and along with the earlier backing of Unison and Labour’s Environment Campaign SERA, Starmer has made it. Usdaw also nominated Angela Rayner for the deputy leadership, and she is now also through to the final round of her contest. This is a big week for nominations from affiliates, with both the GMB and

The Withdrawal Bill that has been published is pretty dull stuff – even by my standards. There are nonetheless rather frantic efforts to pretend it is in any way terrible. It isn’t. For one reason and one reason only. Like the 1972 Act, all the Bill does is bring the Withdrawal Agreement into UK law. I find that conceptually interesting. The way these treaties are only international law. The way that international law is irrelevant and pointless, unless and until it gets enacted into domestic law. These things comfort me as a reminder that nation states, democracy and the people still matter. It rather penetrates the confected pomp of those

If you’re a pro-Remain Labour member angry that the conference yesterday voted narrowly – and chaotically – to maintain the party’s ambiguity on Brexit, where do you go? A number of shadow cabinet members are hoping they can be the answer to that question. Emily Thornberry has perhaps been the most obvious candidate to take over from Jeremy Corbyn, particularly when dressed as an EU flag, but she’s got competition. Last night at a fringe meeting organised by Politico, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer also made a rather obvious pitch of his own. We were given a backstory (father worked in a factory, mother was a nurse until illness

With Theresa May’s government seemingly on the brink of collapse over the backstop agreement, the Prime Minister can take heart that the Opposition are also experiencing Brexit turbulence. Over the weekend, Jeremy Corbyn set the cat among the pigeons by telling a German newspaper that Brexit cannot be stopped. The Labour leader’s comments dismayed a lot of pro-EU Labour voters. But fret not, in the space of two days Labour’s Brexit position appears to have changed again. Keir Starmer – the shadow Brexit secretary – has just told the Today programme: ‘Brexit can be stopped.’ Expect the position to change again by end of play.

This year’s Labour conference has been praised for adopting a more professional tone than previous years. However, today that message appears to have been lost. After the party pulled plans at the last minute for a female deputy leader, Keir Starmer appears to have gone off script in his big Brexit conference speech. Sir Keir Starmer: "Nobody is ruling out Remain as an option" Shadow #Brexit Secretary receives rapturous applause from #Lab18 on prospect of second Brexit vote https://t.co/l7Mjii6DmY pic.twitter.com/NOMOqu0H2Y — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 25, 2018 The shadow Brexit secretary was met with applause when he appeared to keep the idea of a second EU referendum on the table

After an away day at Chequers on Friday, the Cabinet has finally agreed on a compromise approach for negotiating the UK’s future Brexit deal. The proposals include a ‘free trade area for goods’, a joint institutional framework for the European Court of Justice and a ‘common rulebook’ to maintain high regulatory standards in a variety of areas. Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent member of the official Leave Campaign, joined Andrew Marr to express why he felt his fellow Conservatives should now back the government’s new strategy: AM: Is your message to those colleagues wondering about what to do next – ‘This isn’t perfect… but it is by far the