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A new book on Keir Starmer’s rise to power has caused a stir in Westminster.
It’s revelations have left the prime minister facing a series of questions over a meeting with his voice coach while the UK was under strict Covid restrictions and details an attempted ‘coup’ by his deputy.
Here we look at some of the biggest revelations contained in Get In, by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund.
Dominic Cummings wanted to advise Labour
Perhaps the most unexpected name to appear is that of Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff Dominic Cummings, later to become famous for a lockdown trip to Barnard Castle. The book details how he contacted Jeremy Corbyn’s former spokesman in early 2019 with a proposition to claw back some control over Brexit.
Over a dinner he laid out his plan for Corbyn to save Brexit by backing Theresa May’s troubled deal. That would have led to a less ‘hard’ version of Brexit than the one ultimately hurried in by her successor, Boris Johnson.
Under Mr Cumming’s idea, the Tories would be split, leaving Mr Corbyn to win the next election. But Labour MPs never did support May’s deal. And it was Mr Cummings who entered Downing St, alongside Mr Johnson, not Mr Corbyn.
Rayner considered a coup against Starmer after he sacked her
The loss of the Hartlepool by-election in May 2021 came as a blow to the Labour leader. In its aftermath, he sacked the party chairman, Angela Rayner, triggering a stand-off. She reportedly went to the pub and turned off her phone.
According to the book, a confident says she was ready to launch a coup against her leader: “We could have taken him out there and then, without a shadow of a doubt. All of the unions were on board. We had Unite. We had the money. Momentum were lined up. We were done. We had a rally of 5,000 people ready to go.”
In the end, Ms Rayner was eventually given not just one new job but three -including shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The book claims Rayner’s doubts over Sir Keir continued, however, and that she also complained she did not know who ran the Labour Party — adding that it could not be its leader, because he could not run a bath.
Starmer had a voice coach
This is the one story from the book that has caused the most problems for Sir Keir. The prime minister came under fire after it emerged former actress Leonie Mellinger, who was his voice coach, was made a ‘key worker’ during the Covid pandemic.
The two met on Christmas Eve to discuss his response to Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, even though London was under ‘Tier 4’ Covid restrictions at the time. Ms Mellinger later travelled to Brighton, which was under ‘Tier 3’ restrictions, at a time when people were told not to travel between areas. Sir Keir has insisted no rules were broken and since hit back at the Tories saying: “I was working, they were partying.”
The Tories have called for the police to investigate, but on Wednesday they said they would not because too much time had passed.
Starmer’s chief of staff once compared him to a ‘HR manager’
Morgan McSweeney once questioned his boss’s lack of political nous so much he said: “Keir acts like an HR manager, not a leader. What’s the point of circling the wagons if you can’t last?”
Another of Sir Keir’s senior advisers in opposition, jokingly referenced London’s driverless Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to say: “Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR.”
Plans to ban foreign political donations were quietly shelved
Elon Musk is currently at the centre of rumours he could give £100m to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, in what would be the biggest donation in UK history.
But that could have been prevented had Sir Keir Starmer not abandoned plans to ban foreign political donations after, according to the book, the intervention of a peer and friend, Lord Alli, who led Labour’s election fundraising efforts. The peer did not respond to requests for comment from the Times, which serialised the book.
Starmer was forced to abandon personal email account after a suspected Russian hack
In 2022, Starmer was told that his email account may have been compromised. The hackers were thought to have links to the Kremlin and, at one point, his staff were sent a message warning them not to email him under any circumstances.
The then-leader of the Opposition did change his email, the address for which one source said had been “dangerously obvious”.
