‘Labour is the party of middle England’, says Keir Starmer
Labour is “the party of middle England”, Keir Starmer has claimed.
But the party’s Westminster Leader insisted that “we’ve also got to focus on winning votes across the whole United Kingdom”.
He made the comments in an interview with The Times following what has been described as a “brutal” reshuffle of his top team.
It saw Yvette Cooper replace Nick Thomas-Symonds, the MP for Torfaen, as Shadow Home Secretary. Thomas-Symonds was moved to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade.
Lucy Powell replaced Jo Stevens, the Labour MP for Cardiff Central, as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Stevens was made the new Shadow Welsh Secretary, and replaced Nia Griffith, the MP for Llanelli, in the post.
In the Times interview, Starmer was asked if he considers Labour to be “the party of middle England?”
He replied: “Yes, absolutely, it is and it must be. I’m constantly conscious of the fact that in addition to retaining the votes that we’ve had in 2019, my job is to regain the trust of those voters that voted Labour in the past, not just in 2019, but actually in 2017, 2015 and 2010 and no longer vote Labour. And persuade them not just to look at Labour again but also to vote Labour again. That is about building trust.
“Have we got to focus on winning votes in the red wall? Yes, but we’ve also got to focus on winning votes across the whole United Kingdom. Therefore, yes is the answer to middle England. We absolutely need to win those votes.”
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As I suspected, he and his party only give an f about England. Honest to god Welsh Labour, just break away from them because time and time again throught their voting on Welsh matters they have always taken the side of the English establishment and the Tories. I would vote for Welsh Labour (if Plaid didn’t exist),but never English Labour. Two opposite parties linked together by name only. Just break up.
Cytuno! They certainly aren’t the party of Cymru. Voting Labour exclusively for 100 yrs has been a fruitless endeavour for us.
Plaid supporter here. The disinterest shown by Keir Starmer and his party in Welsh Labour is staggering and does them no favours; Mark Drakeford deserves so much more respect than this, as does Wales.
Drakeford could do his party and Wales a big service by setting up as an entirely separate party. However he has a massive obstacle of thousands of dyed in the wool Unionist Loyalists among his supporters / members and that needs to be shocked into change.
And why Welsh Labour should breakaway from its puppet master in London and become an independent truly Welsh party like Plaid Cymru.
Middle Earth maybe. One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
Even if Wales became independent overnight, I would still want the Tories out of Westminster as much as anyone. Most of our neighbours in England don’t deserve what’s being done to them by these bastards any more than we do in Wales. The only way that is ever going to happen is for the Labour party to shut up about trying to win back the whole of the UK, and focus on winning over England. When it comes down to it, the other progressive parties would form a coalition for the sake of getting the Tories out. It’s Labour who… Read more »
Sorry to disappoint, but the Tory’s just won a byelection in England with over 50% of the vote. No matter how bad they are treating the population of England, the voters there seem to love them. It would seem how the Tory party portray themselves to little Englanders, over policy, that matter to a large section of English voters.
The by election in England was in a tory stronghold. They saw their majority slashed from 29k to less than 5k.
That was down to the turnout (not unusual during a byelection) and the presumption of it being a “safe seat”.
Something in the genes perhaps…. Born again suckers.
They’re just nasty, thick and selfish.
Voters in England must choose their own path. They have had the opportunity to vote twice now in the last few years, for a socialist government, and they have not done so.
As hard as it might be to accept, maybe the majority just don’t want the same thing as we do.
Socialist Government?! Where’s the viable Socialist option in England? FACT: English Labour are primarily Social Democrats and Moderates.
Starmer’s Labour Party should rename themselves the Tory Lite Party!!
It’s a pity Labour can’t win Middle England then. They need others to do that. Unfortunately Labour will never build an alliance of the progressive left in England. They’re too arrogant for that!
A bit of context, which looking at some of the replies to my comment, is clearly needed: In the last general election, 12,710,845 English votes were cast for the tories. That’s 47% of actual votes, 32% of registered voters, and 23% of the total population of England. About 13.4 million English votes went to liberal/progressive/left leaning parties. If you count the half a million or so brexit party voters as wayward tories, which is more or less true, you have a picture of a country that certainly has a higher percentage of tories than the rest of Britain, and is… Read more »
Keir Starmer is not saying anything new. Labour is an English party whose attitude towards Wales is cross between indifference and hostility. Remember, it was London Labour who designed Welsh devolution to fail. They hate Wales as much as the Tories do. All Starmer & Labour care about is England and regaining Westminster power. Wales is a done deal in their eyes. And when someone has that attitude tend to ignore and overlook as they do now. And if anyone intends voting London Labour in Westminster General Elections think that Keir Starmer will be beneficial to Wales are deluding themselves.… Read more »
The Labour party can be summed up by looking at the life of George Thomas, Lord Tonypandy, Descibed variously as a ” sanctimonious hypocrit ” “admirer of Maggie Thatcher” and a bootlicker of English royalty. Remember Aberfan and what Labour did, and you will not be far from the traditional unionist Labour view of Wales.
Disgrifiwyd fe hefyd fel Arglwydd Toady-Pander.
Mae gan e mwy na un enw yn y Rhondda, a dim un yn dda.
I couldn’t believe what the labour party did when they took the money out of the dead children’s public funds to make the coal waste tips safe and remember lord Tonypandy was a Welsh labour minister at the time. Why do Welsh people still vote for the Labour Party. I never voted labour again
100 pet cent correct 👍🏼🏴
You cannot believe a single word Starmer says. He made “Ten Pledges” to get elected as leader and in less than two short years he has broken every last one of them. He lies more often than Johnson does, but his image of stuffed rectitude and integrity covers this better than Johnson’s clowning does. The Times called his reshuffle “brutal”. But not as brutal as the purge of Labour’s membership he has carried out since becoming leader; the most brutal purge in Labour’s history and what is more after a “pledge” to unite the party on the basis of respect… Read more »
😂😂 I think Keir Starmer’s more worried about the Lib Dems than the Tories or actually winning seats in Wales and Scotland. Idiot 🙄😒