Sir Keir Starmer allegedly regarded those who wanted to leave the European Union as “some sort of pariah,” according to a former Labour minister who supported Brexit.
Former sports minister Baroness Hoey claims she left the Labour party because of Sir Keir’s support for a second referendum. Before replacing the seasoned Left-winger as party leader, Sir Keir served as Brexit Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s government.
Ms Hoey, a former Vauxhall MP, said to GB News: “I left the Labour party very simply because Keir Starmer took the Labour party to a position, under Jeremy Corbyn, where they were reneging on the manifesto promises, that they would implement whatever people voted for.”
“Once they called for a second referendum on Brexit, I felt very unhappy and disillusioned with the Labour Party. I was unhappy with the way that they were switching their views, and the way they were ignoring people who genuinely thought that Labour was going to support them in their vote.”
“I just thought, ‘That’s it’, and I left. But, I think the Labour Party left me really rather than, you know, me leaving them.”
Ms Hoey, a non-affiliated peer in the House of Lords, did not declare whether she preferred Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir as Prime Minister.
She said: “I’m not enamoured with Keir Starmer, I have to be honest. Because I saw the way he operated… I mean, he, more than anyone else in the Labour Party, I believe, was responsible for us changing our position, for us ignoring the 17 and a half million people who voted to leave, and for treating anyone who voted leave as some kind of pariah.”
“I remember a group of us trying to see Keir, and he never wanted to really talk to us about it. I think he had decided and knew that he was a fervent European, so I just don’t believe that he’s changed.”
