Sir Keir Starmer has brutally slapped down a pro-Palestine heckler by taking a huge swipe at his predecessor as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaking to delegates in Liverpool’s ACC, the Prime Minister was keen to stress Labour is completely different compared to when Corbyn was at the helm.
Senior Labour MPs have faced growing calls to suspend arms sales with Israel, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves also facing down a protester yesterday.
However, Starmer simply laughed off the heckler’s comments today.
Responding to the finger-wagging heckler, the Prime Minister said: “This guy’s obviously got a pass for the 2019 conference. We’ve changed the party.”
Starmer, who served as Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Brexit Secretary and twice campaigned to make him Prime Minister, is at odds with the disgraced former Labour leader on a number of major issues.
While serving as Leader of the Opposition, Starmer stripped his predecessor of the Labour whip after Corbyn claimed a report published by the Equalities & Human Rights Commission about Labour’s handling of antisemitism was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
Despite banishing Corbyn from the Labour Party, Starmer still finds himself at odds with members on the left of the party.
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Labour suspended a cabal of Corbynista MPs for supporting an SNP amendment to force Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, who is a close ally of Corbyn, also took aim at the Prime Minister by accusing him of treating her as a “non-person”.
Despite seeing off today’s heckler, pro-Palestine protesters have continued to disrupt Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Two Youth Demand activists were arrested after spraying “genocide conference” on the ACC’s entrance for delegates and attendees.
Starmer’s response today appeared to echo Reeves’ comments yesterday.
Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer
PA
After being confronted about selling arms to Israel, the Chancellor said: “This is a changed Labour Party, a party that represents working people, not a party of protest.”
Both responses will no doubt be considered as at least implicit digs at Corbyn.
During his speech to Labour members, Starmer admitted making mistakes in No10 and spoke about his ambitions to roll-out a controversial pylon plan.
The Prime Minister also appeared to make a blunder by mistakenly saying “sausages” when calling for the return of Israeli hostages.
