Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn have a shared love for Arsenal football club and have both captained the Labour “red team” in politics against the Tory blues.
But that is about as far as they go in terms of any bonds in one of the most turbulent relationships in recent British politics.
While the relationship between the pair is beyond repair, Sir Keir’s predecessor has today added to the prime minister’s headache with the launch of his new “kinder” party, which threatens to pinch supporters at a time when Labour’s poll rating continues to drop.
A recent poll put Labour in third equal place with a new Corbyn party, with both on 15 per cent and even the Tories ahead on 17 per cent, behind Reform on a massive 34 per cent.
Just five years ago, after Labour’s dismal defeat to Boris Johnson in the 2019 election, Sir Keir described him as a “colleague” and, more importantly, a “friend”.
But once the leadership was in the bag – courtesy of the support and strategy of his now chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – Sir Keir suddenly had a very different view of his predecessor.
From 2016 he had been loyal to Corbyn, denied there was an antisemitism problem under his leadership, and continued to serve in a shadow cabinet while other prominent Labour MPs refused.
But within months of taking charge of Labour, he had suspended the former leader and attempted to distance himself from Corbyn’s time in charge.
When Corbyn was kicked out in 2023, Sir Keir insisted that contrary to his previous statement, the former Labour leader “was never a friend”.
As various U-turns have shown, Sir Keir has not worried about changing his mind and rewriting history when circumstances required it.
Now though, the former friend is a real problem.
On one side it will allow Sir Keir to emphasise that he is the sensible centrist leader in a political world dominated by extremes of Corbyn on the left and Farage on the right.
But on the other side there will be fears that the issues around trying to cut disability benefits, failing to really take on Israel over Gaza and the infamous winter fuel cuts will encourage many to switch to this new party.
Another ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock has warned that Corbyn’s new party will only help the Tories and Reform.
The issue for the prime minister, though, may be that Corbyn remains a more charismatic figure on the left. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch suffers the same in comparison to Farage.
The one effect of his former friend’s new party may be that it forces the prime minister to be more of a man of the people – less Sir Keir and more just Keir. A quality his premiership has been lacking so far.
