Starmer of the show: Under-pressure Sir Keir ‘in talks about a documentary’ on life in charge of Labour as he tries to reset his leadership with his approval ratings at a record low after election misery
- Labour leader is under pressure to make more of an impact on the electorate
- Party lost Hartlepool by-election and mayoral votes in Tees Valley and West Mids
- Predecessor Jeremy Corbyn disastrously startted in documentary in 2016
- Showed him to be paranoid, with attacks on party staff and the media
Sir Keir Starmer is is discussions about starring his a documentary about his leadership of Labour as he seeks to recover from an election mauling.
The Opposition leader is under pressure to make more of an impact on the electorate after it lost a slew of high-profile votes a fortnight ago.
Sir Keir is facing pressure from moderates and the Labour Left after the party lost the Hartlepool by-election and mayoral vote sin Tees Valley and the West Midlands.
But the plans for a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ programme, reported in the Times, are likely to raise eyebrows after his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn disastrously took part in one five years ago.
Mr Corbyn appeared in Vice News’ The Outsider in 2016, which showed him to be paranoid, with attacks on party staff and the media.
Former Tory leader Lord Hague, who also starred in a similar documentary as Opposition Leader two decades ago, told Times Radio: ‘I had a fly on the wall documentary when I had a faltering leadership. I had fun … it didn’t do me any harm.
‘The bad news is: it didn’t make any difference.’
It came as a new poll showed Sir Keir’s approval ratings have sunk to a record low.
A survey for Redfield and Wilton Strategies showed 23 per cent approved of his efforts and 35 per cent disapproved, a net figure of -12.
Sir Keir is facing pressure from moderates and the Labour Left after the party lost the Hartlepool by-election and mayoral vote sin Tees Valley and the West Midlands.
But the plans for a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ programme, reported in the Times, are likely to raise eyebrows after his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn disastrously took part in one five years ago.
In his 2016 documentary Jeremy Corbyn hit out at the BBC for being ‘obsessed with trying to damage’ his leadership of Labour.
It also showed his director of communications, Seumas Milne, accusing Labour staffers of leaking Mr Corbyn’s briefing notes for Prime Minister’s Questions to the Tories.
It was filmed by Vice News and covered local elections last month, preparations for Commons performances and the reaction to the early stages of the anti-Semitism scandal that rocked the Labour Party and eventually led to his suspension from the party last year.
Sir Keir last night faced his MPs in the wake of the party’s disappointing election results. Labour lost Hartlepool to the Tories for the first time in half a century in a vote that showed that the stars of Brexit are still raw in former Red Wall areas.
He told them the party needed to be ‘bold’ in its plans to modernise Britain, adding: ‘I didn’t come into politics to tinker around edges.
‘ I came into it, as all of you did, to change lives and change Britain. This is a once in a generation moment. We need to build a post-austerity, post-Brexit post-pandemic Britain. That is the challenge before us.’