Sir Keir Starmer ‘seriously considering’ running for Labour leader

Keir Starmer during the launch of his party's manifesto in Birmingham. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has said he is considering a run at succeeding Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader as he pleaded for the party to return to a ‘broad church’.

The Remain-backing former director of public prosecutions has been widely tipped to throw his hat into the ring to lead the party after its worst general election result since 1935.

In an interview with The Guardian, he said he is “seriously considering” entering the leadership race as he urged Labour not to stray “too far from its values” and called for it to continue a radical stance.

Some Labour figures have partly blamed Sir Keir and others from the party’s Remain-wing for the dire election performance in which it lost dozens of seats in Brexit-backing areas.

Sir Keir said: “There’s no hiding from it. It is a devastating result, but it’s important not to oversteer. The case for a bold and radical Labour government is as strong now as it was last Thursday. We need to anchor ourselves in that.

“I want trust to be restored in the Labour party as a progressive force for good: and that means we have to win. But there’s no victory without values.”

He told the newspaper that Labour failed to sufficiently combat the Conservatives’ simple slogan to “get Brexit done”.

“We should have taken it down. Frankly I’d have liked to opportunity to have done it,” he said.

He said there has been “too much factionalism” and called for Labour to return to being a “broad church” as he praised Corbyn-backing Momentum activists and supporters of former leader Tony Blair.

Sir Keir is the only man who is widely-tipped to run for the top job. He is likely to face a field of candidates vying to be the first woman to lead Labour.