the times | Saturday December 4 2021 41News
lacks grip and its promises count for
nothing,” he said. “But the full effects
of extra taxes and rising prices are yet
to take hold and some still want to
give the PM the benefit of the doubt.
“So we must be honest withourselves: we still have a mountain to
climb.”
While Starmer was clearly pleased
with his reshuffle, it brought relations
with Angela Rayner, the deputy
leader of the Labour Party, to a newlow. He failed to consult her about
the reshuffle in advance, with The
Times learning that it was about to
take place before she did.
She found herself trying to fend off
questions about a reshuffle she knewcharisma to win. He says: “The most important thing is to be passionate about the change you want to bring about”nothing about during what was
supposed to be a major intervention
on sleaze. Does Starmer regret failing
to consult her?
The Labour leader was
unapologetic. “There’s never an easy
time,” he said. “A reshuffle is always
difficult whether you’re in
government or whether you’re in
opposition, and very few of them are
carried out successfully. This was
carried out successfully — that is
good for me and it’s good for Angela.”H
e insisted that their
relationship was
misunderstood. “There is
no personal issue
between me and Angela,”
he said. “We’re friends, we get on, we
talk a lot. We bring different things to
the table... the two of us together
make each other stronger. She’s
politically astute and invaluable to me
as a deputy leader and to the party.”
Starmer’s confrontation with the
left is far from over. One of the
biggest problems Labour has after the
Corbyn years is its finances, having
fought three general elections in six
years and running up more than
£2 million in bills defending legal
action over antisemitism.
Earlier this year the party
announced that it would shed at least
a quarter of its staff. Unite, its biggest
funder, delivered a fresh setback this
week by announcing a cut in itscontribution to the party coffers. In
his letter to shadow cabinet ministers,
Starmer is upfront about the problem.
“We don’t have the money the
Tories enjoy,” he writes. “Every day
we have to take tough decisions about
how we deploy our limited funds.
That will mean fewer advisers and
more sharing of resources.”
Asked if he intended to turn to
individual donors for alternative
sources of funding, as Tony Blair once
did, Starmer was clear that he would.
“Across all sources I want to increase
the funding into the Labour Party
because I want to us to be in a
position to win that next election,” he
said. That task has become urgent for
Starmer. He said that the next
election could be held as soon as
May 2023. Tory strategists say that
they view Starmer is, in many ways,
the ideal opponent for Johnson.
While the prime minister is a
charismatic extrovert, they say that
Starmer is an awkward introvert.
Did he believe he had the charisma
to win? “Yes,” he said without
hesitation. “The most important thing
is to be passionate about the change
you want to bring about.
“I’ve met many people who spend
most of their lives walking around the
problem, making a lot of noise about
it, thinking that they’re being
passionate... I’ve got a passion about
actually changing [things]. It is a drive
that has been with me all my life.”people in the pocket. It’s toxic’
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer
Curriculum vitae
Born September 2, 1962, the second
of four children to a nurse and a
toolmaker
Education Reigate Grammar
School; bachelor’s degree
in law at the University of
Leeds; postgraduate in law
at St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Career Called to Bar in 1987;
appointed queen’s counsel
in 2002 and director of
public prosecutions in
2008; elected MP for
Holborn & St Pancras in 2015
and became Labour leader
in 2020
Family Married to VictoriaAlexander, a former solicitor who
works in NHS occupational health;
they have a son and a daughter
Quick fire
Angela Rayner or Wes
Streeting? Both
Peppa Pig or PJ Masks? Oh
my God... Peppa Pig
Stormzy or Beethoven?
Beethoven — but Stormzy
for the kids
Netflix or the BBC?
BBC
Priti Patel or Emmanuel
Macron? Ugh, neither
Tony Blair or Gordon
Brown? BothTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL