Labour now under new management
Starmer says party is set to move forward
KEIR Starmer drew a line under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labour yesterday and said: “The Labour Party is under new management.”
The party chief hit out during angry clashes with Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions, two hours after Labour formally apologised over an anti-Semitism row under the previous leader.
Labour risks being plunged into another bout of infighting just as it tries to move on from Corbyn’s four-and-a-half year reign, ended by last year’s election defeat.
Starmer, Shadow Brexit Secretary on Corbyn’s frontbench, is increasingly wielding his power after winning the leadership race in April.
But yesterday he was taunted over the party’s record on Russia during his predecessor’s premiership. Corbyn made regular appearances on the Russia Today TV channel – something seized on by the PM.
But the Labour leader hit back: “In case the Prime Minister hadn’t noticed, the Labour Party is under new management and no frontbencher of this party has appeared on Russia Today since I’ve been leading this party.”
Earlier, it emerged Labour would pay “substantial damages” to whistleblowers who contributed to a TV expose of its handling of anti-Semitism during Corbyn’s leadership.
The party also issued an unreserved apology over “defamatory and false allegations” made following a BBC Panorama investigation. Seven former employees from the party’s governance and legal unit – who were responsible for the investigation of allegations of misconduct by party members – sued Labour after it issued a press release describing them as having “personal and political axes to grind”.