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…
If Labour wins the next election, Keir Starmer may have to give evidence as prime minister about his past. Awkwardly he may have to face his close former Doughty Street chambers colleague at a long-running public inquiry into the police. The Labour leader has been urged to give evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad and National Public Order Intelligence Unit – so-called “spy cops” – since 1968.
The inquiry was set up by Theresa May while Home Secretary in 2015 to investigate how more than 100 secret police officers targeted individuals and groups linked to political and social justice campaigns. Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. A group of 18 environmental campaigners want him to answer questions over whether he helped to conceal how some spy cops caused the wrongful prosecutions of activists.
Starmer’s former chambers colleague, Maya Sikand KC, is representing ex-spy cop turned whistle blower Peter Francis. His revelations, which include claims that undercover police spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, triggered the inquiry.
In an embarrassing twist, another of Starmer’s ex-girlfriends, Phillipa Kaufmann KC, with whom he lived between 1997 and 2001, is also representing alleged victims at the Undercover Policing Inquiry. The inquiry, which was only expected to last three years, has gone on for almost a decade so far costing taxpayers £82 million. The inquiry has revealed that law enforcement officers were improperly having illicit sexual relations whilst on the job.
Today the Labour high command and leading figures of the Labour movement are finalising the party manifesto. This is Labour’s “Clause V” meeting, attended by Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet, senior backbench MPs, top trade union leaders and members of the party’s national executive. Widely flagged is the row with the big unions demanding no backtracking on workers’ rights and fighting a proposed ban on North Sea oil and gas drilling. Business lobbyists are pressing Starmer to, well, be business friendly. Angela Rayner’s proposed union-driven Labour reforms are, to put it mildly, a point of difference.
Another point of contention is the expected manifesto shift on trans issues. 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 2019 manifesto threatened “mandatory LGBT+ inclusive” education – think “Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkeys” for all. Starmer has noticeably moved on this issue which was appalling to old school feminists and Mumsnet hardliners alike – expect the manifesto to ignore the issue.
Starmer said to Robert Peston this afternoon:
“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy businesses bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”