STARMER CONFRONTED IN LIVERPOOL

Kri Starmer confronted by Corbynista protestor (picture Skwawkbox)

You won't have seen it on broadcast media, but Keir Starmer was not exactly universally welcomed in Liverpool on Monday.  While the MSM focused in on his big speech, nothing was said about any protests and a subsequent confrontation with a far left activist.  Starmer was reportedly snuck into the venue for his main speech to avoid left-wing demonstrators outside.  Following the speech, the Labour leader and his team had gone to a cafe in the city, but local activists got wind of this and picketed the establishment.  A 71-year-old Corbynista called Audrey White then confronted Starmer as he sat at his table.

White had two main beefs with Starmer and began by attacking his collaboration with The Sun, a newspaper that remains a touchy subject in Liverpool more than three decades on from its controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.  She then accuses Starmer of betraying the 'Corbyn legacy' and says: "We may as well have a Tory if we a person like you, who lies to the party".  A man then intervenes and attempts to usher her away, while Starmer continues to look on nervously without saying a word.

It's incredibly damaging footage and led to the hashtag #StarmerOut trending briefly on Twitter.  However, there was nothing to be seen of it on broadcast media.

Click below for the video.

BACKLASH OVER STARMER'S SUN PIECE

Keir Starmer's decision to write an article for The Sun newspaper over the weekend has gone down like a lead balloon with many of his MPs.  Merseyside MPs have been particularly scathing, as have Liverpool mayors Joanne Anderson and Steve Rotheram.  Even frontbenchers such as Mike Amesbury, Bill Esterson and Alison McGovern have publicly lashed out.

Note that Amesbury, the shadow housing minister, cannot even spell the first name of his party leader...

Far left Labour MPs have also been heavily critical - no great surprise there.  Among them was Diane Abbott who issued a couple of tweets and appeared to suggest that Starmer had broken a pledge not to speak to The Sun.  However, what Starmer had said during his leadership campaign in January 2020 was: "I certainly won’t be giving any interviews to The Sun during the course of this campaign."  There was no pledge beyond that.

In direct response to Abbott's complaints, The Sun brutally reminded her that she had herself written for the newspaper during her 2010 leadership campaign.  She had also posed in a Sun-branded taxi.

Starmer is not the first Labour leader to have embraced The Sun newspaper, usually referred to by Scousers as 'The S*n' or 'The Scum' after it cast aspersions on Liverpool fans in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster.  Ed Miliband posed with an edition of the newspaper in 2014 and faced such a backlash that he later issued an apology.  One Labour councillor in Liverpool resigned in protest.

Will Starmer backtrack or weather the storm?

DUGHER F***S OFF

Former Labour MP Michael Dugher was never much of a Corbynista, to put it mildly.  Having been deeply embedded in New Labour, and as a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, his card was always going to be marked by the loony left.  It was surely no coincidence that at the first general election under Corbyn's leadership he chose not to defend his seat.

Dugher now works in the music industry, but we still follow his Twitter account.  He is probably the only former MP we follow, but then who can possibly tire of such colourful use of the English language...

On Sunday Michael Dugher binned the Labour party.  In one final slap in the face for the Corbynistas he chose the hated Sun newspaper in which to announce his departure.  In his article he denounces Labour's anti-Semitism and the abuse of Jewish MPs Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth.  He is damning throughout and singles out Corbyn and McDonnell for criticism.  Well worth a read.

“Labour has been the greatest force for good for working people in British history.  But the Labour Party I joined no longer exists.”

Michael Dugher