What is a woman? It’s a question Sir Keir Starmer has sometimes struggled with in the past. So it was perhaps no surprise then that the Labour leader chose not to pontificate on the subject when he addressed the women’s lobby drinks. Instead, Starmer opted to focus on warm words for his hosts and look ahead to the forthcoming election, full of glamours like endless vox pops, ‘24/7 Conservative strategy relaunches’ and ‘coffee – so much coffee’.
But it wasn’t all politics of course. Sir Keir told the attendant hacks that he is keeping abreast of popular culture via the hit TV series The Traitors on BBC One. For those unfamiliar with the series, Starmer said: ‘It is sort of like the 1922 committee, they all sit together in a crumbling historic building. They take lumps out of each other before regular secretive votes. Assassinations are communicated by handwritten parchment letters – so that’s Jacob Rees-Mogg covered. And in Claudia Winkelman, they have a host nearly as glamorous as the great Sir Graham Brady.’ Cue laughter all round.
‘I actually think the show should be reassuring for the Prime Minister,’ Starmer continued. ‘Now, his whips have got a few more than three people to root out but the question remains: who on his benches is up to the task? Who would make a good traitor? Liz Truss, she’s a definite no – far too busy being popular. Gillian Keegan, she’d want far too much credit. James Cleverly, probably too x-rated. David Cameron, too busy chillaxing. Greg Hands? Something, something note.’ Having run through various Tory grandees, Sir Keir then squarely fixed his guns on red wall Rottweiler Lee Anderson.
The former Labour councillor quit as Tory deputy chairman last week in protest at the Rwanda Bill before abstaining on the grounds that, er, Labour MPs were mocking him in the voting lobbies. As Starmer noted:
Lee Anderson has many qualities but for something like this, he’s just a bit too sensitive. I mean, poor old Lee, we know in our lobby, that he’s just a delicate flower, he needs support, he’s not up to being a traitor. And anyway, all the Prime Minister needs to do to dissuade him is to laugh in his face – which is something, happily, the Prime Minister can pull off with style.
Ouch. Mr S awaits Anderson’s response with interest…
Comments