Can you be a millionaire and Labour leader?
Shadow Brexit secretary’s Wikipedia entry changed to remove reference to him being a millionaire
Sir Keir Starmer’s Wikipedia page has been edited to remove mention of his “millionaire” status, ahead of an expected leadership bid. It was excised from the online encyclopedia on Tuesday from an internet address somewhere in north-west London. His team denies involvement.
SIR KEIR STARMER’S Wikipedia page was edited this week to remove a reference to his being a “millionaire”, ahead of an expected leadership launch.
The passage was excised from the online encyclopedia early on Tuesday from an internet address traced to north-west London.
The shadow Brexit secretary’s team has denied any involvement. However, it came as Sir Keir, a former human rights barrister and director of public prosecutions, denied being too wellheeled to lead the party as it sought to regain the trust of northern workingclass voters.
The bookmakers’ favourite told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My dad worked in a factory – he was a toolmaker. And my mum was a nurse, and she contracted a very rare disease early in her life that meant she was constantly in need of NHS care. So actually, my background isn’t what people think it is – I know what it’s like.”
An ardent Remainer, Sir Keir was expected to represent a centrist challenge for the leadership. But in an apparent attempt not to alienate Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left supporters, who will be crucial in choosing the next leader, he warned against a return to Blairism.
Praising Mr Corbyn’s “radicalism”, he said: “We need to build on that, rather than simply say ‘let’s now oversteer and go back to some bygone age’.”
But he drew criticism from defeated former Labour MPS, including Gareth Snell, who lost Stoke-on-trent Central last Thursday. He tweeted: “Those of us in Leave seats with small majorities and towns and cities begged [Sir Keir] to listen to us and our constituents when we told him that the party’s Brexit policy was losing us votes. He wouldn’t listen – and we lost.”
Within two hours of Sir Keir’s comments, Tony Blair gave a speech in central London in which he excoriated Mr Corbyn’s “unforgivable” leadership and “comic indecision” over Brexit, warning Labour would be “finished” if it did not transform into a “progressive modern coalition”. The former prime minister said: “We let our country down. To go into an election at any time with such a divergence between party and people is unacceptable.”
Yesterday also saw the first official declaration of the leadership race, as Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, announced her intention to stand. Like Sir Keir, she represents a north London seat, has a title – Lady Nugee – but prefers not to use it, and owns property worth millions.
Seeking to distance herself from last week’s defeat, she described Mr Corbyn’s backing for a general election an “act of catastrophic political folly”.
She set out her pitch for leader in an article for The Guardian in which she argued she had already “pummelled” Boris Johnson in the Commons and knew how to exploit his weaknesses.
Ms Thornberry, a former barrister, said Labour should fight on pledges for the elderly, housing, unemployment and child poverty.
But she faced accusations of hypocrisy over her property portfolio, which is believed to be worth £4.6 million. Her husband, the High Court judge Sir Christopher Nugee, paid £572,000 for a three-storey housing association property in Ms Thornberry’s Islington constituency in 2007. Her brother Ben now lives in the Georgian town house, which is now thought to be worth more than £1million.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir’s family home in Kentish Town, north London, is worth about £1.8million. Mr Starmer and his wife, Victoria, bought the house for £650,000 in 2004.
Yvette Cooper, the former work and pensions secretary, also appeared to signal an interest in the Labour leadership yesterday. Seen as the strongest potential candidate in the Blair-brown