“I am very proud to be doing this, to be with you this morning and to support you through this campaign, both as an MP here, from the shadow cabinet and as leader of the Labor Party. “My leadership, if I win it, will be with you and other campaigns like you so that we can win [on] issues like this that are so important.”
“Proud Trade Unionist”
Sir Keir described himself as a “proud unionist” in a campaign video and had joined UCU workers on a separate picket line in December 2019 in the week before the general election. This summer, however, he stopped short of supporting recent rail industrial action, despite backing “the right of workers to do so”. Campaign group Momentum, which was first set up to back Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left policies, said his comments represented “the leadership we were promised and then denied”. The group said in a statement: “We will not allow Keir Starmer to drive a wedge between Labor and the trade union movement. The defense of workers’ interests is the founding mission of the Labor Party. “In the coming weeks we will be campaigning across the country for all Labor MPs to stand with Labour.” Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and one of Corbyn’s closest political allies, tweeted the video saying: