‘He comes over as weak’: Keir Starmer fails to convince Wakefield voters as the Labour leader has not capitalised on Boris Johnson’s sinking ratings ahead of a crunch by-election

38 comments

  1. >. “I wasn’t convinced,” she said. “He’s an awkward person, isn’t he? He doesn’t fit in. Boris Johnson would fit in. He would have us screaming and laughing.”

    Clowns do that.

  3. Imagine a guy giving you a recession, worst cost of living crisis on record, highering taxes, a ton of scandals, partying during lockdown, highest number of recorded criminality in government, record low investment and a tanking economy / pound thanks to Brexit.

    “but that Labour leader isn’t funny, so I’ll vote for Boris”.

    Country honestly gets what it deserves. I hope the tories continue to rinse this country dry because honestly…. They really do deserve it.

  8. If the people in Wakefield like a fraudster, a conman, a cheat, good luck to them and carry on voting Tories .
    They do have the largest high security prison in Europe.

    That will accommodate Boris Johnson and his cronies

  9. He should go on a podcast and smoke a joint or something while announcing his change in drug policy.

    Couldn’t go much worse for him than his daft position on drugs and people might actually think he was slightly less of a dork.

  10. Now Starmer has served his purpose of nullifying the left, the guardian feel comfortable saying what they really think about him.

  11. How do we know he has failed to convince the Wakefield voters? Its not Thursday yet.

    Same bollocks before the May elections when the Tories got toasted and kicked out of many local councils, by labour and the LDs

    my prediction – Tories 0 – Labour 1 (Wakefield), LD 1 (Tiverton)

  12. Labour are still going to win. The Chicken of Kyiv helpfully reminded the North (and his northern lackeys) exactly what he thought of it the other day when he chose cheering Ukrainians over starving Brits.

  15. I struggle to understand why people want a leader who is entertaining especially when the only thing he’s good at is entertaining… er I mean organising business meetings. Utterly bizarre.

  18. All Sir Kier has to do is represent the views of the average working man. That means possibly saying things that he doesn’t necessarily believe.

    Such as ‘illegal immigrants should be deported’
    Or ‘brexit is a good thing’ or ‘trans women shouldn’t compete against women in sport’ then make a few remarks that are politically incorrect and borderline offensive, call a female journalist darlin or sweetheart something like that. Slag off the EU and talk about global Britain with a hint of nostalgia about the empire, war and a bit of pride in Britishness

  22. Complete morons

    Yeah let’s just ignore the litany of failures that have had a demonstrable negative on your life and pretend thats less important than some perceived charisma.

    Turkeys voting for Christmas. It begs belief how easily manipulated these people are.

  23. Kier really does need to show his true self. I heard him on a podcast and he seemed honest and charging and funny. Labour leaders seem to be trained to hide themselves, milliband would have come across a lot better if her had been himself.

  24. The problem with Starmer is people try and judge him off his policies, but he doesn’t have any that he has set out clearly in public which haven’t been done by Boris already (like the energy company windfall tax).

    When they realise he doesn’t really ever take a position on much, they judge him off his personality. Problem there, is he also doesn’t seem to have or show much of a personality. He has a negative electoral platform, which in its entirety is basically “I am not Boris”, rather than “I am Sir Keir, this is what I intend to do”.

    He needs to try being positive, coming up with policies and talking about them. Most of the time he criticises what Boris is doing but doesn’t say what he would do differently. He seems to think his best path to power is to do nothing, to try and offend no one.

    Corbyn did very well in his first General Election as leader because he had policies, that he voiced, people liked some, disliked others. But no one ever fully agrees with a polticial manifesto in an election. There are always elements people disagree with. Corbyn took opposition and proposed alternative solutions of what he would do differently. That is the closest Labour have got to winning since the election Gordon Brown called. I am not saying he needs to copy Corbyns programme but he needs to do something, propose some policies at least. Even if its a few slogans with little detail like Boris does, doing nothing just does not work.

  25. Say what you like about Bojo, but until there’s a credible alternative, that’s what we’re stuck with.

  27. I feel like this is all by design, the tories are cunts and labour go out of their way to avoid winning an election so their mps can just sit and eat up their paychecks whilst pretending they’re doing anything useful so they can keep their job

  28. It’s almost like people want a leader who will actually commit to a cause or issue and offer up their answer (be it a right or wrong answer) to the problems faced by the people, instead of just meekly sitting on the fence not offering up any sort of answer or counter at all to the problems, and only ever living in hindsight instead of providing any sort of foresight.

    Be you pro-Labour or anti-Labour, you got to face it that Starmer is just a dead duck with no personality beside simpering meekness. Labour needs to be shot of him fast, and get someone else to lead the party who will at the very least jump off the fence and stake their claim forthright on the political issues of the country if they want any sort of chance at winning the next general election.

    Labour at the moment, all they got going for them is that they’re anti-Tory, and that’s it. That’s the very bare minimum an opposition party needs to be at the moment, and the general UK population is looking for more than just the bare minimum from their political parties. Give them more.

  30. How is he meant to get any sort of reputation when the overwhelming majority of the media rabidly denegrate him at every opportunity.
    M

  31. This is the kind of reason I moved away from the Wakefield area as soon as I fucking could and after uni basically ended up borderline depressed at going back. I hate the area and the people in it so much. Not a brain cell to share between most of them. It’s a shit area that’s been fucked over by the government for decades, but everyone in the area is the combination of arrogant and thick that Boris Johnson thrives on

  32. Vox Pop crafted to suit the Guardians agenda.
    Labour will take Wakefield.

    That doesn’t mean there’s still not distrust in this and other parts of the country when it comes to Labour.

    It can’t be underestimated how damaging the previous leadership was to the image of Labour with the working class. It’s fairly clear that large swathes of Labour activists,members and some MPs hold the working class in utter contempt.

    Thankfully most of them have just abstained from voting
    which has led to reduced majorities for Labour in most red wall constituencies

    But if enough of them switch allegiance to the Tories then Labour are finished as an electoral force.

    The fact that the Tories are crafting policies aimed at poor workers has not gone unoticed.Raising the tax allowance,the national insurance changes coming in July.

    It all.plays well to the workers in those communities.
    That and the cost of living grant and energy rebate.

    The perception is that the Tories are about the same for Labour or not much better for those at the bottom.
    They also don’t bring the baggage of woke and Idpol bollocks that most of the working class are thoroughly indifferent to at best and completely opposed to at worst.The immigration issue is going to be huge going into the next election.

    If Starmer tries to placate his middle class surban supporters by being soft and attacking Tory policies like Rwanda. He will hemorage votes in key areas of the country.

    Going to be interesting because I feel Labour can win or lose the election depending on what happens in the next few months.

  33. Nothing like a discussion on politics to start a Monday morning. Let the insults and personal attacks continue.

  35. LMFAO Labour really struggling in Red Wall during Mid Term blues of a Tory Gov.

    THIS is why I wanted Starmer to stay. He is hopeless and stands no chance against Boris come GE2024

  36. Can’t believe watching and reading media telling you someone is weak, makes people think theyre weak.

    Just look at the devastation to Boris and his reputation when the media allowed a scandal to grow and didnt snuff it out.

    The most important thing Blair ever did was make a deal with Murdoch.

    We keep acting like Labour leaders are all just idiots, as opposed to the mammoth task involved in overthrowing this media landscape.

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