Keir Starmer secretly considered quitting as Labour boss after ‘kick in guts’

Keir Starmer virtually stop as Labour chief within the wake of a “kick in the guts” by-election defeat to the Tories in 2021.

According to a brand new extract of a biography of Mr Starmer, the Labour chief noticed the lack of Hartlepool as a “personal rejection”. The seat was beforehand held by Labour at each election since 1974 however the Tories below ex-PM Boris Johnson received with a majority of virtually 7,000.

In the guide written by the previous Labour adviser Tom Baldwin, Mr Starmer mentioned: “I felt like I had been kicked in the guts. The result was terrible and I had a moment where I thought we are not going to be able to do this”. It claims Mr Starmer instructed his high advisers he was going to resign.

Former shut aide to the Labour chief Chris Ward mentioned: “Keir kept saying that he felt he would have to go, that the result showed the party was going backwards and he saw it as a personal rejection.I told him it was far too soon for that kind of thing, but it was a rocky few hours.”

Mr Ward added: “Keir regards his role solely as a means to an end of achieving change. If he becomes the obstacle to it, he’ll get out of the way.” The extract claims the Labour chief’s spouse, Vic, was amongst those that urged him to not act too swiftly. Another key determine was Morgan McSweeny, who stays Mr Starmer’s extremely influential director of campaigns.

Mr Starmer can be quoted as saying: “I’m not fulfilling some lifelong dream here. I could happily work in the bookshop or something.”

But in a exceptional flip across the polls now present Labour heading in the right direction to kind a authorities after the subsequent normal election for the primary time in 14 years. Just days in the past the get together additionally demolished large Tory majorities at two by-elections held in Wellingborough and Kingswood.

In a stonking victory Labour overturned an 18,000 majority in Wellingborough on a 28.5% swing – the second largest from the Tories at a by-election for the reason that Second World War. The swing is nicely past what Mr Starmer wants throughout the nation on the normal election later this 12 months to kind the primary Labour authorities in 14 years.

Polling guru John Curtice mentioned the Tories have been in “deep, deep trouble” after the outcomes and mentioned it remained possible Mr Starmer would be the nation’s subsequent Prime Minister. But Mr Starmer refused to get carried away, saying: “There’s more work to be done. As every football fan knows, you don’t win the league in February.”