Sir Keir Starmer ‘prepared to be ruthless’ to win election – especially when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn

Published

2 years ago

March 30, 2023

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Sir Keir Starmer says he is “prepared to be ruthless” to ensure Labour wins the next election, including when it comes to his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

Earlier this week, Sir Keir put forward a motion to Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), to block Mr Corbyn from running for the party at the next general election – which was passed by a majority of its members.

Mr Corbyn branded the move a “shameful attack on party democracy” and vowed to “not be intimidated into silence”.

But speaking as he launched Labour’s local election campaign in Swindon, Sir Keir said: “There is one person who is responsible for the fact that Jeremy Corbyn will not be a Labour candidate at the next election and that is Jeremy Corbyn.”

Politics live: Starmer brands Sunak ‘Mr 1%’ at local election launch

Mr Corbyn – who ran Labour between 2015 and 2019 – was suspended over his response to a report in antisemitism within the membership, which said the party had broken the law in its handling of complaints.

He said the issue had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”.

Sir Keir said those who considered the problem to be exaggerated were also “part of the problem… and should be nowhere near the Labour Party”.

While Mr Corbyn was eventually allowed back into the Labour membership, the new leader refused to allow him to return to the parliamentary party, leaving him sat as an independent – with his future in the Commons now in doubt after the next national vote.

Asked by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby if he felt bad about blocking his successor from being a Labour candidate, having once described him as “a friend”, Sir Keir said: “The first words I said as Labour leader is I would root out antisemitism in my party and I have been absolutely ruthless in that.

“There is always more work to do but I set out to change the Labour Party and to change it in relation to antisemitism. I said I’d root it out and I am delivering on that pledge.”

But would voters question whether he could be trusted because, as Beth Rigby put it, he stabbed his former leader in the front?

“We went into that 2019 election and the electorate gave their verdict on the Labour Party as it then was,” said Sir Keir.

“I took the view that you don’t look at the electorate and say ‘what on earth were you doing’ – you look at your own party and say ‘we need to change’.

“Whether it is rooting out anti-Semitism, being absolutely clear we are pro business, pro NATO, and facing the voters and being fit to serve the country.

“I make no apologies for that because what I want is a Labour government and only with a Labour Party that is facing the voters, that is answering the difficult challenges of the future, do we get the right to be heard and to earn those votes that we need to get a Labour government.”

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy backed the decision earlier, despite his friendship with with Mr Corbyn.

Speaking to the Beth Rigby Interviews programme, which airs on Sky News at 9pm tonight, Mr Lammy said: “It’s not about friendship.

“No one ever said that politics sometimes hasn’t got to be brutal.

“It was an important decision, I think, for both Keir Starmer to take when he took over the Labour Party to be absolutely clear that we would get rid of that antisemitism, and for the NEC to take.”

Asking the Labour leader whether he was willing to be ruthless to win, Sir Keir told Beth Rigby: “I am prepared to be ruthless to ensure that we have a Labour government.

“I have been ruthless in the change in the Labour Party, I do not apologise for that, because what matters most to me is that the change that millions of people desperately need across our country comes about, but that will only come about if I ensure that we have got a Labour Party that is fit to face the future, fit to face the voters and has the answers to the difficult challenges that face the country.”

‘Mr 1%’

Earlier today at the launch, Sir Keir branded Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “Mr 1%” as he attacked the Conservative government’s record on tax cuts and the asylum backlog.

“Communities want a government that matches their ambition and they aren’t going to get it from this prime minister,” he said.

“r 1% – 1% of asylum claims from those arriving on small boats actually processed. 1% of the fraud that was lost during COVID actually recovered.

“0% of the windfall tax that could have helped working people actually collected.”

The Labour leader also criticised the government’s tax policy, which he said awarded “tax cuts for the richest 1% while working people pay the price”.

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Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson left me ‘half alive’, sole survivor says

Published

15 hours ago

August 25, 2025

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Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson left me 'half alive', sole survivor says

The sole surviving guest of a lunch where three others died after being served food laced with toxic mushrooms has told an Australian court that the actions of murderer Erin Patterson have left him feeling “half alive”.

Ian Wilkinson, who received a liver transplant and spent months in hospital after the poisoning in July 2023, described how he had been left traumatised as he delivered his victim impact statement at Patterson’s pre-sentencing hearing in Melbourne.

Patterson, 50, was found guilty last month of luring her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home in Leongatha and poisoning them with individual portions of Beef Wellington that contained toxic death cap mushrooms.

A jury also found her guilty of the attempted murder of Mr Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.

Speaking at the start of the two-day hearing, Mr Wilkinson, a Baptist pastor, said the death of his wife had left him bereft.

“It’s a truly horrible thought to live with that somebody could decide to take her life. I only feel half alive without her,” he said, breaking down in tears.

“It’s one of the distressing shortcomings of our society that so much attention is showered on those who do evil and so little on those who do good.”

‘I bear her no ill will’

He described Gail and Don Patterson, the parents of Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson, as the closest people to him after his wife and family.

“My life is greatly impoverished without them,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“I’m distressed that Erin has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the lives of those I love. What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who have only good intentions towards her?”

He called on Patterson, who said the poisonings were accidental and continues to maintain her innocence, to confess to her crimes.

“I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness for those harms done to me with full confession and repentance. I bear her no ill will,” he said.

“I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim and she has become the victim of my kindness.”

The court received a total of 28 victim impact statements, of which seven were read publicly.

‘An irreparably broken home’

Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but declined – spoke of the devastating impact on the couple’s two children.

“The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents,” he said in a statement that was read out on his behalf.

Patterson attended the court in person on Monday rather than watch via a video link from prison which she did during a hearing earlier this month.

The hearing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.

Patterson faces a potential life sentence for each of the murders and 25 years for attempted murder.

She has 28 days from the day of her sentencing to appeal, but has not yet indicated whether she will do so.

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Israel pounds outskirts of Gaza City overnight as military offensive plans continue

Published

1 day ago

August 24, 2025

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Israel pounds outskirts of Gaza City overnight as military offensive plans continue

Israel pounded the outskirts of Gaza City overnight, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government vowed to press on with a planned offensive on the city.

Families streamed out of the city as the explosions hit.

“I stopped counting the times I had to take my wife and three daughters and leave my home in Gaza City,” said Mohammad, 40.

“No place is safe, but I can’t take the risk. If they suddenly begin the invasion, they will use heavy fire.”

Others said they would prefer to die and not leave.

“We are not leaving, let them bomb us at home,” said Aya, 31, who has a family of eight, adding that they couldn’t afford to buy a tent or pay for the transportation.

“We are hungry, afraid and don’t have money,” she said.

Witnesses said that overnight they heard nonstop explosions in Zeitoun and Shejaia.

Tanks shelled houses and roads in Sabra, and buildings were blown up in Jabalia.

On Sunday, the IDF said its forces had returned to combat in Jabalia to strengthen its control of the area and dismantle militant tunnels.

It added that the operation there “enables the expansion of combat into additional areas and prevents Hamas terrorists from returning to operate in these areas.”

This month, Israel approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City. The offensive isn’t expected to start for another few weeks.

In the meantime, mediators in Egypt and Qatar are trying to resume ceasefire talks between the two sides.

On Friday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said that Gaza City will be razed unless Hamas releases all its remaining hostages and ends the war on Israel’s terms.

Around half of Gaza’s two million residents currently live in the city and on Friday a global hunger monitor said that Gaza City and its surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine that will likely spread.

Israel said the monitor ignores steps Israel has taken since late July to increase aid supplies into and across Gaza.

Eight more people died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Saturday.

281 people, including 114 children, have now died of malnutrition and starvation since the war started, according to the ministry.

The war began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel, mainly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

Since then, Israel has killed at least 62,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and internally displaced nearly its entire population.

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Two married couples found dead in British car after crash in Germany

Published

1 day ago

August 24, 2025

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Two married couples found dead in British car after crash in Germany

Two married couples have died after a British car veered off the road and crashed in Germany, according to police.

The fatal accident happened shortly after midnight on Saturday in the trees near a highway in the Kassel district, north of Hesse in central Germany.

The 32-year-old male driver, a 31-year-old female passenger, a 32-year-old female passenger, and a 30-year-old female passenger all died at the scene, despite the efforts of German emergency services.

Sky News understands UK officials have not been contacted for assistance.

At roughly 12.30am on Saturday, the car appears to have veered off the road and crashed into nearby trees around 30m from the road, according to the Kassel police department.

One of the victim’s phones automatically alerted the emergency services to the incident, who sent an ambulance to the scene.

Soon, fire engines, ambulances, command vehicles and emergency support vehicles were all dispatched.

When emergency workers arrived, the car was lying on its side, wedged between several trees.

It wasn’t until they removed the roof that they found all four passengers.

The emergency workers who dealt with the victims were immediately supported by the specialist mental health workers at the fire station in Reinhardshagen.

“This high number of deaths is an extraordinary operation for our Reinhardshagen Volunteer Fire Department,” said a fire department spokesperson.

“For some of the emergency personnel, it is the first time they have been confronted with death in this way.

“Therefore, a great deal is being done to help us process these images. We will also discuss this among ourselves and within families, because not everyone can easily shake off what they have seen.”

An investigation into the accident is ongoing and is being conducted by the Hofgeismar police station.