‘I couldn’t sit in a pub with him — he’s just too boring’
Hears withering views on Sir Keir from focus group in ITV documentary
WHAT will Sir Keir Starmer do it he fails to become prime minister? Cincinnatus retired to his plough, Teddy Roosevelt went hunting, Tony Blair chased money. Sir Keir, should he be rejected by voters later this year, dreams of a job in retail. ‘There’s a little bookshop on Kentish Town high street I’ve always fancied working in,’ he told an ITV documentary last night.
The channel’s deputy political editor Anushka Asthana organised a focus group and asked participants to write one word capturing what they thought of Sir Keir as a personality. The results: ‘Boring. Trustworthy. Weak. Steady. Unsure. Unconvincing.’ Yet this is the man voters may soon, apparently, favour with a vast majority.
Asthana, not quite suppressing a yawn, asked him if he was indeed boring. ‘Entering into an argument about whether you are boring or not, it’s boring,’ replied the Bobby Dazzler of north London. And that is where much of the programme was shot: Sir Keir’s home turf.
Mould-breaking politicians reach beyond their safe zones and take their message to raw parts. But we saw Sir Keir in a north London bar before an Arsenal home game, discussing match tactics. ‘Football is very binary,’ he revealed. ‘Politics is like that. It’s also all about winning.’
The half-hour documentary, to be followed next month by one on Rishi Sunak, featured behind-the-scenes shots of Sir Keir at his party conference in Liverpool and at Labour’s HQ in London. There was a glorious close-up of little Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, clapping feverishly during Sir Keir’s conference speech. Fanboy numero uno!
During a speech-writing meeting with shadow ministers Angela Rayner, Lucy Powell and Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir was seen carefully taking dictation after Reeves suggested a sound bite.
UNTIL recently he took his notes from Jeremy Corbyn. The programme had footage of him sitting beside old Corbyn in 2019, quite the attentive courtier. Asked if he really wanted to see Mr Corbyn become PM, Sir Keir blurted that he never thought it was going to happen. He then became decidedly shifty when asked why he served in Corbyn’s team.
What was Sir Keir’s vision for Britain? ‘I’ve been very clear,’ he kept saying. Eventually he coughed up a stiff platitude or two about providing the country with ‘security’ and ‘hope’ and making people better off. One focus group member, from Wales, said: ‘I couldn’t sit in a pub with him. I just find him too boring.’ Asthana asked the Labour leader if that comment mattered. Sir Keir responded, rather admirably, that he was not there to entertain voters.
Lord Mandelson popped up to purr: ‘I don’t mind him not having a swagger.’ Sir Keir offered seriousness. That was what the people wanted, said Mandy.
Asthana mentioned Nigel Farage. What did Sir Keir think of him? He closed his eyes and swayed a bit. I think Nigel terrifies him. The show also reproduced snapshots of Starmer the student, in eyeliner, when he wrote for Socialist Alternatives magazine.
‘Are you still a Lefty?’ asked Asthana. ‘Yes,’ he replied with a note of hesitation. But didn’t he claim now to like Mrs Thatcher? ‘She had clarity of mission and purpose but what she did was very destructive,’ said Sir Keir. A football manager would call that playing it both ends.