Keir Starmer was 'certain' Labour would lose 2019 election under Jeremy Corbyn

12 June 2024 , 18:58

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Keir Starmer was 'certain' Labour would lose 2019 election under Jeremy Corbyn

Keir Starmer has said he was "certain" Labour would lose the 2019 General Election - despite campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn.

The Labour leader's comments came as he faced a grilling on his support for his predecessor as he was grilled on Sky News's Battle for No10. Pressed on his previous support for the former Labour leader, Mr Starmer said: "I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election."

"I did campaign for Labour, of course I did, I will openly say I campaigned for Labour, I wanted good colleagues to be returned into the Labour Party."

He was also asked if there was a trust issue with voters given his U-turns on pledges from the 2020 Labour leadership race.

Labour leader Keir Starmer appeared on Sky News's Battle for No10

Mr Starmer told the Sky News leaders' event in Grimsby: "No because what I would say is this - I decided it must be country first so every decision after that I judged previous decisions, previous positions and I said 'Is this truly country first, party second'; if the answer to that was 'no' then I changed the position and dragged my party back to the service of working people."

Rishi Sunak must be a leader, not just a manager

But he also received applause from the studio audience as he hit back at Rishi Sunak's tax attacks, saying: "The Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises".

He added:"We've got the highest tax burden for 70 years and I think working people shouldn't pay more tax. We will not raise their tax. What we need to do is get the economy going - there's a reason that taxes have gone up so much in recent years and that's because the economy is flatlining." He also claimed he had "dragged" Labour back to the service of working people.

The Labour leader's appearance comes just three weeks before the country heads to the polls and as he prepares to launch his party's election manifesto on Thursday in Manchester. Speaking to Sky News, he said the blueprint for government would set out Labour's plans for "growth creation".

Ashley Cowburn