Starmer has made a huge amount of his Dad working as a “toolmaker”. On Wednesday’s highly-watched Sky News Leaders Event he said: “I accept I earn a lot of money in the job I am now in. But when I grew up my dad was a toolmaker, he worked in a factory.” The public have heard it so much that they actually started laughing…
Starmer reacted angrily and said it wasn’t a “laughing matter”. Guido wonders if his modest beginnings are as genuine as they seem. Lefty site Skwawkbox claimed in 2022 that it had “reports from multiple sources, which Starmer has never challenged or corrected, that his father owned the factory in which he worked“. It wasn’t able to get further than that. Guido can now reveal what Rod Starmer himself said of his work…
In Volume 18, issue 3 of Barn Theatre News, printed in August 2014, Rod Starmer wrote about his son. He said that before university Keir took a year off:
“The next 6 months were spent in my factory operating a production machine…DEAD BORING…..Keir!! At Leeds, Keir obtained a first in Law, LLB and a Scholarship to Oxford for a second degree, BCL.”
That should clear up any remaining doubt that Starmer’s father actually owned a toolmaking factory as opposed to just working in one. Maybe we can be spared the constant reminders of Starmer’s faux-modest roots…
Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar said in his speech marking the launch of the Scottish Parliament election campaign:
“The UK Labour government has many meaningful achievements which they need to shout louder about, but it is also fair to say that they haven’t got everything right. And there are many challenges they still must confront. I get it. I don’t just see it. I feel it across Scotland. I know the Prime Minister and the UK Labour Government are not popular with the public right now. So, I am not running to be Scotland’s first minister in denial of that truth. I am running to be Scotland’s first minister in defiance of it.”
