As if Sir Keir Starmer didn’t have enough on his plate what with his freebie scandal, Sue Gray inquiry and his first Labour party conference as PM, his own backbencher has taken aim at him — again. For the third time this week, Diane Abbott has once again very publicly slammed her party leader. Taking to Twitter today, the Hackney North MP posted a classically grainy headshot of her adversary, alongside an acid-tongued attack on Starmer’s freebie fiasco:
Ellie Reeves MP says ‘Labour’s [general election] victory was only possible because under Keir’s leadership we changed the party.’ Changed it into an organisation whose leaders are in the pocket of millionaires?
Ouch. Talk about airing dirty laundry…
It follows two earlier interventions from the Corbynista earlier in the week — with Abbott first confessing to the Beeb she felt Starmer had treated her like a ‘non-person’ over the Frank Hester racism row, before admitting to Elizabeth Day: ‘I’ve never had a nice chat with Keir Starmer.’ Don’t hold back, Diane!
And while Abbott may be one the most openly combative Labour MPs at present, she’s not the only one angry about frockgate. After it emerged that some clothing donations made to Lady Starmer by millionaire donor Lord Alli had not been properly declared, the PM’s gifting situation came under heavy scrutiny this week. It transpires that Sir Keir has accepted over £107,000 worth of gifts since 2019 – the most of any parliamentarian in the same period — with his lefty lot are rather bemused by their leader’s willingness to accept them.
One left-winger told the Telegraph on Friday: ‘I don’t know of anyone who thinks this is a good idea. Friends and colleagues are mortified’, while another struggled to continue their fury at the whole ordeal: ‘This is what hypocrisy looks like – and most of us have been fighting the “they’re all the same” rhetoric for our whole careers, Keir’s double standards just prove it’s entirely accurate.’ Burn…
Despite initial protestations from No. 10 that voters aren’t fussed by frockgate, the PM, his wife, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner have now all said they will no longer accept clothing donations in future. But after a week of bad press about the whole palaver, Mr S wonders if it’s just too little, too late…
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