Ill-matched Starmer reels under repeated political blows
Keir Starmer (59) has led the Labour Party for over a year…
Yet, as YouGov's latest poll showed, Starmer is now facing his worst approval rating ever:
Approve: 26%
Disapprove: 50%
The polling also asked whether Starmer "looked like a PM-in-waiting":
Does: 22%
Doesn’t: 54%
Assuming the current Labour leader's approval ratings continue to decline, then backbench MPs should launch a coup in the following weeks.
Politicians like Diane Abbott (67) or even Jonathan Ashworth (42) are in the wings, eager to replace Sir Keir as Labour leader.
A mixed record
• In 2010, Starmer was involved with the controversial decision not to prosecute police who had shot dead a young Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, some years earlier. The 27-year-old electrician, innocent, had been misidentified as a terrorist.
• Starmer was caught up with what many considered to be the scandal of US rendition when, from 2010 to 2012, under his direction, the UK government refused to prosecute MI5 and MI6 spies accused of being involved with the torture of detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
• But perhaps most infuriatingly of all, in recent years, for his strongly pro-European party, he has argued for Brexit, saying: "We have left the EU, there is no case for rejoining." His words were in a clear break with the party's policy at the 2019 General Election of holding a second referendum.
Yet, as YouGov's latest poll showed, Starmer is now facing his worst approval rating ever:
Approve: 26%
Disapprove: 50%
The polling also asked whether Starmer "looked like a PM-in-waiting":
Does: 22%
Doesn’t: 54%
Assuming the current Labour leader's approval ratings continue to decline, then backbench MPs should launch a coup in the following weeks.
Politicians like Diane Abbott (67) or even Jonathan Ashworth (42) are in the wings, eager to replace Sir Keir as Labour leader.
A mixed record
• In 2010, Starmer was involved with the controversial decision not to prosecute police who had shot dead a young Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, some years earlier. The 27-year-old electrician, innocent, had been misidentified as a terrorist.
• Starmer was caught up with what many considered to be the scandal of US rendition when, from 2010 to 2012, under his direction, the UK government refused to prosecute MI5 and MI6 spies accused of being involved with the torture of detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
• But perhaps most infuriatingly of all, in recent years, for his strongly pro-European party, he has argued for Brexit, saying: "We have left the EU, there is no case for rejoining." His words were in a clear break with the party's policy at the 2019 General Election of holding a second referendum.
The Pub Brawl
Earlier this year, in the run-up to local elections, Sir Keir was involved in a very public brawl with the owner of a Public House in Bath, southwest England.
Rod Humphris (54), who initially challenged Starmer in the street, said he had been a Labour voter all his life but the party had "failed him". He accused the Labour leader of making "children wear masks in school when there's never been any evidence for it".
When Sir Keir stepped inside The Raven pub for a visit that had been pre-arranged with another of the owners, Mr Humphris told him to "get out of my pub".
Commenting later to the press, Mr Humphris said: "I think he has utterly failed us as the leader of the opposition. He has completely failed to ask the questions that needed asking, like: Why have we just accepted lockdown? Why have we just accepted the loss of all our freedoms?"
The skilled potter, who also writes crime thrillers, said he does not agree with coronavirus lockdowns, and complained the Labour leader had walked into his pub without asking. However, when he protested, Sir Keir's bodyguards forced him away.
Speaking afterwards, Starmer said he "profoundly" disagreed with Mr Humphris' view.
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