Starmer’s ‘navel-gazing’ essay will not win votes, say Labour MPS

SIR KEIR STARMER has been ridiculed by his own MPS after it was revealed he has written a 14,000-word essay for a Westminster think tank to end Labour’s “navel-gazing”.

The Labour leader has composed an essay for the Fabian Society in an attempt to reshape his own leadership before the party’s conference this month. Labour MPS say he must use the conference to set out a new vision and policies for Labour, after an 18-month premiership in which many argue he has done little to reform it.

A source close to Sir Keir said the essay would signal him “turning the page and ending the navel-gazing”.

MPS said the essay would do little to win back voters who abandoned the party at the 2019 election, as the red wall of Labour safe seats in the North fell to the Conservatives.

Jon Trickett, the MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, said: “I don’t think the ex-miners at the miners’ welfare club in my area are going to be reading 14,000 words, and I don’t think many people in the country are, to be honest.

“The former Labour voters who went to the Tories or to Brexit won’t be studying a 14,000-word article. They are looking for concrete punchy opposition to the Government, and they’re looking for a clear policy.”

Others on the Labour Left welcomed an intellectual framework for his leadership, which they hope will be followed by a set of policy proposals for the next election.

Lloyd Russell-moyle, a backbencher, said: “If he is going to lay out his ideological vision and where we’re going and what will underpin that, then I would say ‘Hallelujah!’

“We have seen none of that whatsoever so far. The navel-gazing in terms of factional warfare and petty politics and bullying has come from his so-called supporters.”

He added: “The morale and bullying in the party is the worst that I’ve ever known. But if his essay goes well and he turns it around at the locals, we might have some change.”

♦emily Thornberry, the shadow international trade secretary, announced that Parliament would be given a veto on negotiating objectives and a final deal for all future trade talks under a Labour government. Ms Thornberry said MPS would be able to decide what objectives the Government should aim for in trade talks.