Starmer fighting in the playground? It’s news to us, say schoolmates
EVEN his most impassioned devotees would probably admit that Sir Keir Starmer is hardly a byword for excitement.
But last week the Labour leader revealed he had been a ‘bit of a lad’ at school and had got into trouble for fighting.
The revelation about a boy remembered as a ‘model pupil’ left former pupils and teachers from Reigate Grammar School in Surrey scratching their heads.
The party leader had told LBC radio presenter Nick Ferrari: ‘I did get a detention.’
He added that it was for ‘fighting’. However, asked whom he fought, Sir Keir said: ‘I can’t remember, but they were always around the back of the sheds.’
Tory peer Andrew Cooper, who was in the same year at the school, said of the fight claims: ‘That’s news to me.
‘I don’t remember any fights. He was a normal teenage kid. I don’t remember anything specific like fights or anything like that.’
Lord Cooper said he himself got his ‘fair share of detention’, but added that he didn’t recall ‘any detentions by Keir’. He suggested Sir Keir was a more engaging figure as a youngster than he is as a politician, saying: ‘My recollection was that he was kind of a live wire.
‘In social situations, he was a charismatic kid. If there was a bundle of boys at the playground having a laugh, Keir would be in the middle of it.’
Retired teacher David Jones, who taught French to the young Starmer, said of suggestions that he had fought: ‘Good heavens, no. No, he never came to my attention in that context in any shape or form.
‘I think, unusually, in his current position, he is probably being ever so slightly frivolous. As far as I am concerned, I would say he was a model pupil.’ One of Sir Keir’s classmates, Andrew Sullivan, said: ‘I don’t remember any fights.
‘He could have got detentions, but you don’t tend to remember others’ detentions.’
However, Mr Sullivan, now a prominent conservative commentator in the US, added: ‘He was a rough and rowdy guy.
‘He was a bruiser. He was definitely much more fun-and-games than I see him today. I can barely recognise the Keir in public today.’
Mr Sullivan said he and Sir Keir became ‘notorious for never leaving each other alone’ in fierce political debates during their school days, insisting: ‘There was a lot more colour to him than the current thing.
‘He was a force of nature. He had fire in his belly.’
When Sir Keir entered the school in 1974, it was a state selective grammar. It became a private school the following year and now charges annual fees of up to £21,000. Other old boys include Norman Cook, the real name of DJ Fat Boy Slim, and David Walliams.
Last night, a Labour Party spokesman declined to comment.
‘He is probably being ever so slightly frivolous’