Starmer turns to strategy expert who once accused him of taking the Labour Party down ‘a political dead end’
Sir Keir Starmer has turned to a strategy expert who once lambasted him for lack of vision and ‘profoundly naive’ reliance on focus groups.
Tom Kibasi, former director of Left-wing IPPR think-tank, has reportedly been drafted in to work with Starmer chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
Mr Kibasi, a self-styled architect of Sir Keir’s successful Labour leadership bid in 2020, is understood to be working on a specific strategy project for several months.
But the move has stunned some Labour MPs given Mr Kibasi’s outspoken criticisms in the year after he became Labour leader.
Writing in Feburary, 2021, Mr Kibasi accused Sir Keir of taking his party down ‘a political dead end.
‘If Starmer were to depart as leader tomorrow, he would not leave a trace of a meaningful political project in his wake.’
Referring to himself as ‘one of the strategic architects’ of Sir Keir’s successful leadership campaign, he accused him of learning the wrong lessons from Sir Tony Blair’s election victories.
That included provoking ‘a completely unnecessary war with the party’s left’ and his immediate past predecessor Jeremy Corbyn who was suspended from the Parliamentary party in October 2020.
Tom Kibasi, former director of Left-wing IPPR think-tank, has reportedly been drafted in to work with Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has turned to a strategy expert who once lambasted him for lack of vision and ‘profoundly naive’ reliance on focus groups. Pictured: The Prime Minister at a national Service of Remembrance marking the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday
Sir Keir was accused of provoking ‘a completely unnecessary war with the party’s left’ and his immediate past predecessor Jeremy Corbyn (right)
But ‘politically spanking’ Mr Corbyn had simply reminded the public ‘of Labour’s divisions’.
Mr Kibasi also lambasted Sir Keir for letting focus groups define his strategy of going easy on the Tory government rather than developing a clear message.
He wrote: ‘This is profoundly naive….Letting randomly selected members of the public set the political tone is followership, not leadership.’
Last night, one Labour backbencher said last night: ‘It speaks volumes for what McSweeney must think about Starmer that he’s brought in someone who so strongly criticised Keir after he’d been leader for less than 12 months.’
Downing Street said that it did not comment on staff.
