Keir Starmer tells The Jeremy Vine Show public should “butt out” over Kate

Keir Starmer tells The Jeremy Vine Show public should "butt out" over Kate

On The Jeremy Vine Show this morning (THURS) Labour leader Keir Starmer said that the public should "butt out" when it comes to speculating about the health of the Princess of Wales.

Vine asked the Labour leader if he felt sorry for Kate amid the ongoing speculation about her health. Starmer said: "Yes, I think we should leave her alone, she's had a difficult operation and she deserves privacy.

"I do feel, it's a guttural thing really as a human being, that we should just butt out and leave her alone. It's not really a political response, it's a human response as a dad and a human being."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770754204321141172

The Labour leader also hit back at recent comments from Labour peer Peter Mandelson that he should lose a few pounds and talked about the advice he's been getting from former PM Tony Blair.

He said: "It was a bit of a surprise. To be perfectly honest I couldn't care less. I'll have to invite Peter down to my five-a-side game."

Asked he'd would take weight loss drug Ozempic. Starmer replied: "No I'll just spend a bit more time on the five-a-side pitch."

"I'm a massive football fan and it's like being a manager down on the touchline and 60,000 people are giving you their advice on how to do it differently.

"I talk to Tony a lot about the period just before '97 because obviously I'm very interested in talking to people who have won elections and taking a party from opposition into government.

"In the Labour Party we've only done that three times…so talking to Tony and Gordon (Brown) about that has been really helpful.

"Not so much about specific policies but about the pace, the preparedness of getting an opposition ready for government if we are privileged enough to be voted in to serve."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770757549484105729

The Labour leader also responded to callers to the show who raised concerns about topics such as small boats, the cost of living and assisted dying.

Caller Pat from Essex asked Starmer about the small boat issues. The Labour leader said: "We got to stop these boats coming over. There's no ifs or buts. It's a massive problem and it gives this sense of having lost control of our borders.

"What I wouldn't do is try to find headlines in relation to gimmicks that won't work and I think the Rwanda is a gimmick that won't work.

"What I would do is start with the gangs that are running this evil trade, that are putting people in boats and taking their money and take them down."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770760502169174492

Neil from Staffordshire asked Starmer about cost of living increases having opened his water bill up that morning to find it had risen by 18% year on year.

Starmer replied: "It's the extra money on the bills, but it is also the terrible pollution in our rivers and our seas. I went with my kids to Bournemouth last summer and they couldn't go in the water because it was too filthy because of the sewerage that was in there.

"I think that revolts all of us, what we've got to do I think is we've got to have much tighter regulation of the water sector. The other thing I'd like to see is accountability all the way to the top so the person at the top is personally liable, particularly in relation to the pollution."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770766551139946988

Christine in Cambridgeshire asked the Labour leader if he was supporting Esther Rantzen's campaign for Parliament to vote on permitted assisted dying for the terminally ill.

Starmer responded: "Where there's a settled intent of someone to end their own life, often because they're very, very ill, this is Esther Rantzen's big plea, and somebody else acts compassionately, that ought to be seen in a different way.

"My personal position is that at the moment it's a complete crime to assist in any shape or form or way. It would be better, in my view, if Parliament make a distinction, but it will be a free vote because they'll be people, of all political parties, who have strong views on this."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770770315712303410

Sylvia from Durham asked about young children getting scurvy and rickets and older people suffering from hypothermia. In response Starmer said:

"I shudder that you even have to ask a question like that. If we get the chance to serve we are privileged enough to govern the country, introduce breakfast clubs in every primary school.

"So that every child will be able to come into a breakfast club have the support they need before school, and some food and a meal before school, because too many children are starting school hungry.

"On older people, I heard a heart-breaking story, I was in Dewsbury last year where an 84-year old pensioner said to me that she doesn't get out of bed in the winter before midday because she can't afford to put the heating on.

"And then when she does get out of bed, she's in a sort of thermal overcoat most of the time in her own house.

"We have to sort that out with lower energy bills and that has to be the long term solution, which is why earlier in the programme we were talking about clean power by 2030, which is making sure that our energy bills come down, because we can't go on like this."

CLIP: https://twitter.com/JeremyVineOn5/status/1770777731157897524

PLEASE CREDIT: THE JEREMY VINE SHOW

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