Keir: I lead Labour, it’s entirely on me..
Turmoil rages on after losses
KEIR Starmer has told his new Shadow Cabinet he takes “full responsibility” for Labour’s election mauling after a botched reshuffle dented his authority.
He said there was no escaping the scale of the defeat that showed “the size of the journey we have to go” in England.
Tensions were still bubbling internally after he stripped deputy Angela Rayner of her party and campaign roles after the Hartlepool by-election.
She was given new roles at the 11th hour which he said would “take the fight to the Tories” amid furious claims that he was trying to make her a scapegoat.
But Mr Starmer said: “I take responsibility. Nobody else. I lead the Labour Party. It’s entirely on me.”
Labour will hold a policy review to produce ideas to chime with voters after losing council seats in traditional heartlands, as well as studying wins in Wales, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.
New campaigns chief Shabana Mahmood said the party must
I will work tirelessly to reform our party... to show Labour speaks for the working class
ANGELA RAYNER VOWS TO FIGHT ON AFTER RESHUFFLE CHAOS
balance appealing to former voters in the Midlands and North without putting off supporters in cities.
Ms Rayner said: “For too long we have given off an air of talking down to people and telling people what they need...what they should think.”
She said she would “work tirelessly to reform our party” in order to “show that the Labour Party speaks for the working class”.
Mr Starmer will today try to get on the front foot by lashing the Tories’ “piecemeal approach” to tackling inequality between regions.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Labour had to change, adding: “We can never have the same policies at 1997 [or] at 2019.”
Labour faces another tricky Red Wall by-election after ex-Coronation Street star Tracy Brabin won the West Yorkshire mayoral race.