Keir nearly quit over kick in the guts' 2021 by-election

Wife helped him stay strong

- ASHLEY COWBURN

KEIR Starmer thought about quitting as Labour leader after a by-election defeat, a biography has revealed.

Mr Starmer felt the loss of Hartlepool in 2021 as a personal rejection, the book reports.

The seat was previously held by Labour at every election since 1974 but the Tories, then Boris led by Johnson, won it with a majority of almost 7,000.

In the book by the former Labour adviser Tom Baldwin, Mr Starmer says: "I felt like I had been kicked in the guts. The result was terrible.

"I had a moment where I thought, We are not going to be able to do this." The book even says Mr Starmer told his top advisers he was going to resign.