I will back strikers, pledged Starmer during campaign

SIR KEIR STARMER promised during his leadership campaign that he would stand with striking workers in leaked footage that has provoked a new row with the Left.

The Labour leader joined members of the University and College Union (UCU) on the picket line on Feb 26 2020, two days after online voting opened in the party leadership race.

Sir Keir has banned his frontbenchers from appearing on the picket line during recent industrial action, putting him on a collision course with the Left of his party as the RMT railway union and other groups go on strike.

Last month, he sacked Sam Tarry, a shadow transport minister, for giving unauthorised media interviews in support of rail strikes and flouting collective responsibility in the shadow cabinet by deviating from the party line.

Defending his ban, Sir Keir insisted that Labour must turn “from a party of protest into a party that can win power”.

But during his campaign in 2020, he said striking lecturers had his “full support” and told activists: “It’s really important you get politicians to come out and support you and stand with you. I’m very proud to do that, to be with you this morning and to support you through this campaign, both as the MP for here, from the shadow cabinet, and as running as Labour leader.

“My leadership, if I win it, will be standing with you and other campaigns like you so we can win [on] issues like this that are so important.”

Sir Keir described himself as a “proud trade unionist” in a campaign video and had joined UCU workers on a separate picket line in December 2019, the week before the general election.

But this summer he has stopped short of endorsing industrial action by railway workers, despite saying he supported their “right to do so”.

The Momentum campaign group, which was first established to support Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left policies, said his comments represented “the leadership we were promised, then denied”.

The group said in a statement: “We won’t let Keir Starmer drive a wedge between Labour and the trade union movement. Championing workers’ interests is the Labour Party’s founding mission. In the coming weeks, we will campaign across the country for all Labour MPS to stand with labour.”

Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and one of Mr Corbyn’s closest political allies, tweeted the footage with the words: “Starmer on a University and College Union picket line in 2020. #Solidarityrmt.”

His latest position on the strikes is that he supports workers’ right to take industrial action but is not supporting any specific campaign.