As the byelection campaign continues, the Labour leader’s media appearances couldn’t be duller if he tried
It’s going to be a long old week for Keir Starmer. One which will be first spent trying to convince the country he hasn’t given up on winning the Hartlepool byelection and then, almost certainly, explaining why he never expected to hold on to the north-eastern constituency anyway.
The Labour leader’s day had got off to a bad start with a Survation opinion poll, commissioned by ITV’s Good Morning Britain, showing the Tories held a 17% lead over Labour in Hartlepool; a seat that had never gone to the Conservatives in its history. GMB’s Susanna Reid cut to the chase. “Why were things going so wrong?” she asked.
