Starmer battles to win back lost rural support

SIR KEIR Starmer has said he is determined to win back rural seats for Labour as he embarks on the mammoth task of turning around the party’s fortunes from the last two General Elections.

Tony Blair, the last Labour leader to win an election, held 170 rural or semi-rural seats – county constituencies outside main metropolitan areas – after the 1997 election, with many in Scotland and Wales.

But Labour has consistently battled an image of a metropolitan or urban party, perhaps recently made more potent by the election of Sir Keir – a Londonbased lawyer.

However, Sir Keir said he would be visiting farmers in the Yorkshire Dales and addressing rural issues as he aims to make Labour into a broad church worthy of winning an election again.

Following a visit to the region this week, Sir Keir said: “You’ll see me in Yorkshire a lot but it will be in rural areas as well because it is very important that we rebuild the Labour Party, and that requires me as leader to have those conversations.”

After the 2019 General Election, the Countryside Alliance’s chief executive Tim Bonner said the result “completed the rout of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs in rural constituencies which was begun in 2005”.

And speaking to The Yorkshire Post yesterday, he said Labour now held just 17 out of 199 rural constituencies.

He added: “They need to win a very large number of rural seats if they’re ever going to be a majority government again.

“I think it does seem the case that Keir Starmer has recognised this as he has started to act, but our view is he needs to go beyond just visiting rural constituencies.

“There’s a whole raft of attitudes that needs to change in the party and particularly, it’s about identifying those policies which are actually relevant to rural people.”

Mr Bonner previously said there had been a “determination of the Labour Party in particular to treat rural policy as a playground for metropolitan fads and fashions”, despite warnings from the left-wing think-tank, the Fabian Society.

He said focussing on issues such as hunting and grouse shooting had been “reflecting the prejudice of urban voters” and had put Labour “out of touch with the reality of rural life” where the

I intend to begin building that trust – and it will take time... Sir Keir Starmer on trying to win back support in rural areas for the Labour Party.

focus is centred on transport, affordable housing, and jobs for people in their own communities.

He said that while he did not think anyone would say Labour could win in Rishi Sunak’s constituency of Richmond, for example, it could win back many semirural former Red Wall seats with distinct policy change.

Sir Keir said: “My job is to restore trust in the Labour Party as a force for good and a force for change. But the way that I intend to begin building that trust – and it will take time, particularly the rural areas – is by being in rural areas talking to people, which is why I’ll be doing this for weeks and months and years, listening to people on the ground in those rural areas.”