The Mail and Mail on Sunday have been serialising an updated version of Lord Ashcroft’s Starmer biography Red Flag before it is released tomorrow, splashing over the weekend on reports that Starmer “spent years in a relationship” with “pro-trans judge” Maya Sikand. A name familiar to co-conspirators…
Guido noted in June of last year:
“Starmer’s former position on whether men can have cervixes or women can have penises might be the accepted wisdom in his leftie North London legal circles – to voters however it is confusing and repellant. Perhaps he is nowadays less close to, as well as less influenced by his old friend and fellow KC Maya Sikand, with whom he shared Chambers. She was involved with the Trans Working Rights Group and may have been a bad influence on Starmer when it comes to sex and gender issues.”
The book runs quotes from contemporaries who allege that Sikand had a “relationship” with Starmer “after she took a pupillage at his Doughty Street chambers in 1998“:
The unauthorised biography also has testimony from sources who claim the pair saw each other “for years.” The sources note that both of them contributed to a textbook – Blackstone’s Criminal Practice – which was published in 2008, after Keir married his now-wife Victoria. The Times has also followed reporting of the claims…
Guido led the way in first naming Sikand. Tom Baldwin’s hagiography of Starmer, (which, hilariously, Ashcroft says was written after Starmer gave up on writing his own autobiography in the Spring of 2023), curiously contains no reference to Sikand whatsoever despite making reference to the PM’s past girlfriends. The Lobby – obsessively fascinated by the personal lives of past Tory prime ministers – has so far acted remarkably incuriously when it comes to Mr Rules…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”