Labour member refuses to rejoin party due to Keir Starmer

13 October 2020, 19:07 | Updated: 14 October 2020, 09:40

"I haven't renewed my Labour membership because of Keir Starmer"

By Sam Sholli

A caller has told LBC that she hasn't renewed her Labour Party membership because Keir Starmer does not provide any "real opposition" to the PM.

Halley from Burnham told LBC's Eddie Mair that she is a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn who feels stuck with Keir Starmer as Labour leader and thinks the latter is "too polite".

When asked if she was Labour member by Eddie, Halley replied: "I was until recently. I haven't renewed at the moment."

Eddie then asked what had stopped her from renewing her membership, to which Halley responded: "Keir Starmer. I am not at all happy with the way he has been behaving. He is being far too friendly with Boris [Johnson] and doing what Boris [Johnson] says."

The Labour leader has adopted a policy of “constructive opposition” throughout the coronavirus pandemic and has stated his party will abstain on tonight's House of Commons vote on Boris Johnson's new coronavirus measures.

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Halley told LBC: "I think they should stop abstaining and start objecting. If they don't like it, then object."

She added: "Abstaining is nothing. Abstaining is just saying 'I don't really know what I'm doing', so that makes [Keir Starmer] a ditherer in my mind."

Halley also criticised Sir Keir's performances at Prime Minister's Questions as Leader of the Opposition.

She told Eddie: "The one time I heard PMQs being done well was when Angela Rayner did it. She had Boris quivering. I've not seen Keir Starmer doing anything like that. He doesn't follow anything up.

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"If he asks a question, he doesn't get the answer. Well, he never does. Boris never answers, he just waffles a bit.

"But you should go back and keep doing it until such time as he [is] forced to [answer]."

She added: "He's too polite. I'm sure he's a very nice person, but I want somebody to be in opposition to get us back to something more like a proper country without all this right-wing stuff going on."

"I think we need a real opposition and we haven't got any," she also said.