Jeremy Corbyn MP reveals his regrets while being Leader of the Opposition and reveals his relationship with his successor Sir Keir Starmer.
Talking to host Ali Milani on the show Politics Uncensored, the former politician spoke reflected on his time as Leader of the Labour Party and spoke about his regrets and the treatment he received from the media: “We underestimated the opposition within the Labour party. I had a belief that all those that worked for the Labour party would support what we were trying to do, they didn’t. They undermined and they tried to weaken it. Dealing with the mainstream media is never easy. We underestimated the malevolence and the hostility of the right wing press in Britain. The Daily Mail, the Daily express, all of them ran terrible stuff on me day in and day out. My house was on daily siege, sometimes Laura [] couldn’t go out at all. It was horrible. Most people wake up on a summer’s morning hoping to hear a dawn chorus. What do I hear? Chattering photographers outside who then jostle and harass.”
He continued: “It meant for Laura [Alvarez], who is very political, very active, very knowledgeable, got either belittled or abused or attacked. She got a lot of attacks, as did my sons. In a sense, I can take it because it’s me, I chose to do this. They didn’t. And the horrors they got. The other thing is, one should be very careful of the insidious language that’s used by the media you think are your friends. I wrongly, completely wrongly, assumed that so called liberal papers like the Guardian would… I’m not asking for endorsement; I’m not asking for support. At least give us a fair hearing. They didn’t. Academic analysis show that only 90% of the media reporting was hostile.”
Later in the interview, the Islington North MP spoked about his relationship with Sir Keir Starmer: “We appointed [Keir] as Shadow Secretary after the referendum. How should I put this? I never felt very close to Keir. He was efficient at analysing the legislation and very quick at that. But was he particularly involved in everything else and every other political discussion? No, he didn’t show much interest in all the other issues we were dealing with. He never spoke when we were discussing housing, environment or anything else. Were we close? No. He’s a very different person now than he was then… He hasn’t spoken to me for 2 years.”
