Sir Keir Starmer is the favourite to be Labour’s next leader

THE editor of an online newspaper dedicated to covering Labour Party politics has described Sir Keir Starmer as “apolitical” and a leadership candidate whose every step is “calculated”.

Sienna Rodgers, who worked for Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq before taking the reins of the LabourList website, said: “He’s not left wing. I find it genuinely unbelievable and a huge failing of the ‘Labour left’, that people are actually swirling this narrative of ‘he really wants to be more left wing secretly but he’s being held back as he builds this kind of broad coalition’. I think that’s absolutely laughable.”

She added: “You only need to look at what he’s like in his own constituency Labour Party to know that he’s on the right of the party.”

Once considered to be a likely council election candidate in Camden, Ms Rodgers has a strong set of contacts within the borough’s Labour ranks and has been credited with breathing new life into LabourList since becoming its editor. She now regularly appears as a go-to pundit on national TV.

Speaking on Novara Media’s regular Tysky Sour show, she said of local party meetings: “He keeps out of a lot of the fights but ‘the right’ know in that CLP, when they need a vote they will rely on Keir and his wife to come in and quietly vote for them.”

Asked what faction she thought he would be most connected to, she ramped up her criticism: “I don’t think he belongs to any of them, it’s even a bit unfair to say he’s with the ‘right’ of the party, I just think that’s the way he has behaved. I think he is apolitical, I think he lacks politics and that’s the reason why members should be a bit wary.”

Mr Starmer, the Holborn and St Pancras MP, is the favourite to land the leadership following Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to step down in the wake of the party’s general election defeat in December.

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On Monday evening, members in his own constituency will decide who they want to nominate to be leader and deputy leader at meeting to be held in Bloomsbury, a session held after a fortnight in which supporters of Mr Starmer and his critics have jousted over his suitability. Some of his admirers who were at this week’s AGM said they were surprised by Ms Rodgers’ withering assessment.

She had added: “Everything about Keir’s trajectory is calculated.”

Sienna Rodgers

Camden Momentum have already urged members not to support him, but Mr Starmer has racked up a series of nominations from CLPs around the country.

He also has support from several unions including Unison and Usdaw. Unite has favoured Rebecca Long-Bailey, who has generally won the support of Mr Corbyn’s strongest supporters. Ms Siddiq and council leader Georgia Gould are among those who have endorsed his campaign to be leader.

In a sit-down interview last week, Mr Starmer told the New Journal that he defined himself as a socialist who wanted to reduce inequality across the country. Asked about factionalism and fractious local meetings, he said: “I’m not saying there is nobody who is against the idea of me being the leader of the Labour Party but I do not think the vast majority of members are in that space.”

He added: “I genuinely think I get along with and have the respect of people who come from different parts of the party.” He resumed his campaign this week after taking time out to look after his mother-in-law who was critically-ill following an accident. Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry are also running in the contest, ending on April 4.