The toolmaker's son had it bad, but Sunak had it worse

We are barely halfway through this election campaign, and TV audiences have started playing Keir Starmer bingo.

- JOE MURPHY

A groan chorused through the Sky News studio when the Labour leader managed to sneak, unasked, into his TV interview that “my wife works in the NHS”. Five minutes later, the audience erupted into guffaws when he found an excuse to reveal – who knew? – “my dad was a toolmaker”.

People, please stop! This sort of behaviour is only likely to encourage Starmer to carry on doing it. The manifesto launch will be laden with references to worthy Starmer relatives.

In the TV head-to-head a week ago, Sir Keir Starmer barely got a word in. In the latest event, he wouldn’t shut up. Whatever Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor, asked him he would pick a seemingly random portion of his stump speech and start reciting it like a robot. Rigby is famously no shrinking violet, but she ended up pleading with Starmer to let her ask some questions. Her first blood was drawn on whether he had thought in 2019 that Jeremy Corbyn would make a good PM. It totally floored him, prompting a long series of evasions and detours.

He had at least one ready and frank answer. “Yes of course,” he replied instantly when asked if he was happy to pay higher tax himself. But for much of the time, Starmer was slippery as his Brylcreemed barnet over his policies, especially on tax, where he hid behind a formula that no hikes were needed for “the plans in our manifesto”. Yes, but what about the stuff that isn’t in the manifesto? The camera panned across the audience, revealing quizzical, unconvinced expressions.