Camden MPs Sir Keir Starmer and Tulip Siddiq catch up with supporters from the borough at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool

TULIP Siddiq has called on Labour supporters to line up behind Sir Keir Starmer, amid disappointing polls and an autumn conference in which his leadership was put up for debate.

The loyal Hampstead and Highgate MP made a thinly veiled attack on Andy Burnham ­– Labour’s so-called “King of the North and potential challenger” – as she spoke to the New Journal in Liverpool.

She insisted: “It does really feel at this conference that there is a huge level of support for Keir”, and added: “Can I just say people are very critical of others who are trying to make unpleasant waves for the Labour Party when they should know better.

“In my opinion you should be behind the leader and you should be supporting the leader, not trying to float your own platform, and I don’t care if you’re a mayor of another city. At the end of the day Keir is our prime minister and you should be backing him.”

Mr Starmer made special time to meet the party faithful who had come up from the Camden constituencies to Merseyside. Several were close to the front for his main stage speech in the hall on Tuesday in which he vowed to fight the rise of Reform UK.

Ironically, Mr Starmer had once backed Mr Burnham to lead the party and in 2015 was introducing him at leadership contest events held in Camden. It was
to no avail back then, as Mr Burnham – the early favourite in the race to succeed Ed Miliband ­– was beaten by Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Starmer’s first year as prime minister has seen rows over the removal of the winter fuel payments to the elderly, cuts to disability benefits, raising of student fees and the bombing of Gaza.
The national polling regularly shows Nigel Farage’s party as likely to have the most seats at the next general election ­– albeit with another four years before the country is scheduled to return to the ballot box.

The more immediate question for the electorate in Camden is choosing who will run the council at boroughwide Town Hall elections next May. Nobody within the party is expecting an easy ride, despite the landslide wins of the recent past.

The party suffered a heavy loss to the Lib Dems at the recent West Hampstead by-election and face a threat from the Greens too in some wards.

Camden Council leader Councillor Richard Olszewski was active at fringe meetings across the conference. He told the New Journal: “The message that I gave to the Labour group following the by-election is that it is clear to anyone that we’re not immune to how things are going nationally.

“What we will be doing is campaigning on Camden’s record, on what we’re doing in the council as a whole and what we’re delivering on the ground in specific wards. We’ve got a record to be proud of in Camden.

“Obviously the opposition are not going to recognise that so we have to work extremely hard to get that message out there and also have a strong offer for the future as well.”

Cllr Olszewski said that even though it had now been a year since Labour had been in power, the party was still dealing with a “wrecked” economy and public services inherited from the outgoing Tory government.

He added: “Obviously I want us to be doing better in the polls. The way national politics works is there is a cycle where you come into government from opposition and people have hopes for what we will do.

“Once you’re in government you have to make decisions which people aren’t always happy with. We have to do that at Camden Council. We’re trying to do what we can to help public finances which people clearly were upset about. It’s indisputable that what we inherited was a wrecked economy, and wrecked public services. That will take a long time to recover from.”

Labour is currently going through a selection process to decide who will stand where at next May’s elections. In recent weeks there has been much speculation that the council leader will move to stand in one of Labour’s safest areas, Holborn and Covent Garden. He has been a councillor for Regent’s Park in the past but currently represents Fortune Green, a ward shared with the Lib Dems.

“It’s a highly marginal seat which I’ve won three times in a row – it’s definitely going to be hard,” he said. “You just look at the figures on paper and you know there is going to be a challenge. We’re partly through choosing our candidates and the picture should be clearer by the end of the month.”

Cllr Olszewski, who is little more than a year into the role of leader of the council after replacing Georgia Gould, added that the voters would be “king” at the ballot box.

“They’re the ones making the decisions so you have to pay attention to what the electorate are thinking and obviously you have to be aware of your political opponents so we take all of that very seriously,” he said.
“It’s why we will work really hard to defend our record of achievement for Camden and focus on what we can offer for the future.”

Meanwhile, Ms Siddiq said that any rumour about the possibility of her standing down at the next general election was “fake news”, adding: “I had a huge mandate from constituents and I genuinely believe in the level of support I have had from them, they do not believe in fake news.

“They are very comfortable with my record and have shown me immense support.”

Tulip’s karaoke choice

CONFERENCE season is a chance for MPs to meet with supporters and discuss policies ­– but also let their hair down at the many parties in Liverpool once the sun goes down.
They included Tulip Siddiq, the Hampstead and Highgate MP, who may have wanted to get away from it all more than most after a year in which she stepped away from her Treasury job.

She has dismissed a case against her which is ongoing in Bangladesh ­by the post-coup government as politically motivated, and claimed fake documents are being used against her.

Behind the decks at the Labour List party on Monday, the 43-year-old chose the Destiny’s Child song Survivor to sing at karaoke.