KEIR Starmer has been blasted for “off the charts dishonesty” after comparing the Tory manifesto to the Labour manifesto he campaigned on five years ago.
The Labour leader launched an extraordinary attack on the Conservatives, saying their pitch to the electorate was a “Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto”.
Starmer previously hailed Corbyn’s manifesto as “foundational” when he was running for the Labour leadership in 2020.
Speaking on Monday, Starmer trashed the manifesto he had backed in the 2019 election as he attacked the Tories for pledging major tax cuts.
He said: “That’s why I say it’s a Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto, which is load everything into the wheelbarrow, don’t provide the funding and hope that nobody notices.
“The money isn’t there, it is a recipe for five more years of chaos.”
His comments were met with furious backlash from Corbyn (below) supporters and others.
A spokesperson for the left-wing Labour pressure group Momentum said: “Labour’s 2019 manifesto was fully costed. Keir should know, he stood on it as a member of the shadow cabinet.
How can you watch these clips side by side and not conclude Keir Starmer is anything other than a pathologically dishonest man. It is off the charts dishonesty. The only rebuttal from Starmer's fans will be to call anyone a Tory who states the truth.pic.twitter.com/SGEDfLNHFY
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 11, 2024
“But instead he insists, inexplicably, on attacking his own side during an election and spreading misinformation in the process.
“Perhaps what Keir doesn’t like about 2019 Labour policies like public ownership and wealth taxes was that they offered real change, not just the illusion of it.”
National columnist Owen Jones (below) posted a video showing Starmer saying Labour should treat the 2019 manifesto as the party’s “foundational document”.
In the clip from 2020, Starmer said: “The radicalism and the hope that that inspired across the country was real.”
The clip then goes on to show Starmer making the comparison between the new Tory manifesto and Corbyn’s promises.
Jones wrote: “How can you watch these clips side by side and not conclude Keir Starmer is anything other than a pathologically dishonest man. It is off the charts dishonesty.
“The only rebuttal from Starmer's fans will be to call anyone a Tory who states the truth.”
Stephen Flynn shared the clip, saying: “Which Keir Starmer to trust?”
Corbyn has previously said Starmer should not “diss” Labour’s 2019 manifesto, having served in his shadow cabinet between 2016 and 2020 and campaigned on the manifesto at the last General Election.
But Starmer said he had to reassess the pledges in light of Labour’s defeat at the last General Election.
He said: “If you lose that badly, you don’t look at the electorate and say ‘What were you doing?’, you look at your party and say ‘You need to change’.”
