Keir Starmer has hinted at a pitch for the Labour leadership with a call for the party to not “oversteer” by lurching to right following last week’s humiliating election defeat.
The Shadow Brexit Secretary confirmed he was “seriously considering” standing forward to replace Jeremy Corbyn and said the case for a “radical” Labour government was still a strong one.
He insisted Labour could win at the next election but insisted trust must first be restored in the party as a “progressive force for good”.
Sir Keir, MP for the London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, said last Thursday’s result was “devastating” but that the party must now “anchor” itself and not “oversteer”.
He told the Guardian: “The case for a bold and radical Labour government is as strong now as it was last Thursday. We need to anchor ourselves in that.”
The Remain-backing former director of public prosecutions has been widely tipped to throw his hat into the ring to lead the party after its worst election defeat since 1935 last week.
Reflecting on the result, Sir Keir said Labour did not do enough to tackle anti-Semitism or the Conservatives’ key election pledge to “get Brexit done”.
He said he is "seriously considering" entering the leadership race as he urged Labour not to stray "too far from its values" and called for it to continue a radical stance.
Some Labour figures have partly blamed Sir Keir and others from the party's Remain-wing for the dire election performance in which it lost dozens of seats in Brexit-backing areas
He said there has been "too much factionalism" and called for Labour to return to being a "broad church" as he praised Corbyn-backing Momentum activists and supporters of former leader Tony Blair.
Sir Keir is the only man who is widely-tipped to run for the top job. He is likely to face a field of candidates vying to be the first woman to lead Labour. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey is being viewed as the continuity candidate to resume Mr Corbyn's style of left-wing politics.
"I don't think anybody would call me a Corbynista, but I'm a socialist," Sir Keir added.
