Sir Keir Starmer considered quitting after 2021 local elections and Hartlepool loss
Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he considered quitting as Labour leader after the party lost both the Hartlepool by-election and council seats in 2021.
Speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby ahead of tomorrow’s contests, Sir Keir called it “a low point”, with his party recording a net loss of eight councils, as well as the North East constituency – which had been held by Labour since the 1970s, but went to the Conservatives on the night.
“I did [consider quitting] because I didn’t feel that I should be bigger than the party and that if I couldn’t bring about the change, perhaps there should be a change,” he said.
“But actually, in the end, I reflected on it, talked to very many people and doubled down and determined, no, it is the change in the Labour Party we need.”
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Sir Keir said he felt “vindicated” by his decision to stay on “because we are now a changed party, nobody argues with that”.
He added: “And the biggest change is we are now a party that confidently and proudly says country first, party second. That is a changed Labour Party.”
Voters will be heading to the polls on Thursday for a range of local council and mayoral elections, as well as a by-election in Blackpool South following the resignation of its Tory MP Scott Benton.
But reflecting on the losses his party suffered the last time the seats were up for grabs, the Labour leader told Beth Rigby: “Oh yes, it was the low point and it really hit me because my job was to turn around the Labour Party and take us from defeat to success.
“Losing hurts and it should hurt in politics, because this isn’t about me, it is about whether the Labour Party can come back into government and serve working people. So yes, it was a very, very low moment.”
The Conservatives celebrated their win in Hartlepool with an inflatable version of their leader, Boris Johnson. Pic: Reuters
However, Sir Keir said the experience – which came around a year after he took over the party and while Boris Johnson was enjoying a surge in popularity in so-called Red Wall seats – led him to “double down and turbocharge the change that we needed”.
“So, in that respect, retrospectively, it was a good thing because it forced that onward pace, but I am not going to pretend it wasn’t a really hard time.”
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Thursday’s vote is predicted to be a different story for Labour, which has come out of the shadows of their worst-ever loss in the 2019 general election and when they are soaring ahead of the Conservatives in the polls.
But Sir Keir would not put a target on the number of council seats or mayoralties he hoped to win by the end of the counts, saying instead he just wanted his party to “show progress”.
“We have to show that people have the confidence and the trust to vote for this changed Labour Party so we do need to show that progress,” he said.
“The polls don’t predict the future, the polls don’t change the country, but I’ll be looking for that progress because it is really important in the locals and the mayoral elections, but also because of the story it tells for the change we need at the general election.”
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Meanwhile, the Conservatives were playing down their prospects ahead of Thursday’s vote, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt saying he expected it to be a “difficult day” for his party.
Speaking to The Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, he said: “We are very realistic. “We have been in power a long time and a government in office can often get punished in the local elections.
“It happened to Tony Blair in 2001 and 2005 and we are expecting it to be a difficult day tomorrow.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt appeared to be managing expectations when he spoke to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge. Pic: Sky News
Mr Hunt added: “Tony Blair lost… councillors and David Cameron lost hundreds of councillors in the run up to the 2015 election, so we are expecting to see significant losses, that often happens in local elections.
“But what we say to people is, look, this may be a moment where you want to express a view about the national picture, but actually the local services you depend on will be decided by how you vote – and if you want better public services as independently audited time after time, and lower taxes, then you should vote Conservative tomorrow.”
For all the ways you can follow the local elections live across Sky News, click here.
A top Downing Street aide has resigned after sending sexually explicit messages about independent MP Diane Abbott, Sky News understands.
Paul Ovenden, who was the director of strategy at Number 10, is understood to have left the role on Monday after a number of instant messages from 2017 became public.
Sky News understands he did so to avoid becoming a “distraction” for Sir Keir Starmer, just days after he was forced to sack the UK’s ambassador to the US – Peter Mandelson – over his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The messages, exchanged between Mr Ovenden and a female colleague, contained the graphic retelling of a conversation he reportedly overheard about Ms Abbott while at a party.
The former aide has alleged these were not his original words, but said he “deeply regrets” sharing them.
He said: “I really, deeply regret my sharing this story, and the hurt and embarrassment its publication will cause.
“Accordingly, I have brought forward my resignation to today as I do not want to be a distraction from the government’s work.”
Diane Abbott
It is understood Mr Ovenden announced to colleagues before the summer recess he was leaving his role, and had planned to leave “quietly and quickly” sometime this month.
However, in the wake of the publication of these messages, Mr Ovenden “brought forward” his resignation to today.
The messages, exchanged with a female colleague and seen by Sky News, described a game of “shag, marry, kill” the aide overheard while at a party in May 2017.
This involved explicit descriptions about suspended Labour MP Ms Abbott.
A Number 10 spokesperson said: “These messages are appalling and unacceptable.
“As the first black woman to be elected to parliament, Diane Abbott is a trailblazer who has faced horrendous abuse throughout her political career.
“These kinds of comments have no place in our politics.”
Sky News has contacted Ms Abbott for comment.
The latest Number 10 resignation comes as Sir Keir admitted he never would have appointed Lord Mandelson to the post of UK ambassador to the US if he had known what he knows now about the extent of his association with Epstein.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he sacked Mandelson last Thursday, the prime minister explained that a “due diligence process” was conducted before he was appointed to the post in February.
“I knew of his association with Epstein,” Sir Keir said.
“But had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed him.”
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‘Had I known then, what I know now, I’d have never appointed him’ Starmer said.
Just days before Lord Mandelson was sacked, Angela Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary after admitting she did not pay enough tax on her second home.
She also quit as deputy leader of the Labour Party, an elected post.
Sir Keir’s second-in-command admitted to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that she should have paid the higher rate of stamp duty on a home she bought in Hove, East Sussex, as it was her second property.
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