‘My children don’t give a stuff I’m Labour leader’, Starmer tells teenagers

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has credited his children with keeping his feet on the ground, saying they “take the piss” out of him all the time.

The politician spoke to teenagers while visiting the Manchester Evening News office in Oldham on Thursday afternoon.

In a question and answer session, he was asked for advice on coping with exam stress and recommended students take time for something outside of work as well as revising.

He told them he set Friday nights aside to spend with his children, aged 13 and 15.

Sir Keir said: “They don’t give a stuff that I’m leader of the Labour party.

“They take the piss out of me all the time. It’s a complete leveller, I’m reduced to Dad the moment I walk in.”

He also said he took time out by playing football and watching Arsenal – to boos from the Greater Manchester audience.

Sir Keir was gifted a T-shirt bearing the slogan “The North” on his visit and said: “I think there is not enough emphasis on the north.

“I don’t think there’s enough emphasis on what can be done and should be done in Manchester.”

Questioned by 13-year-old aspiring lawyer Heaven Titoss, from Newman Catholic College in Chadderton, Sir Keir said his party would need to “get a grip” on youth crime if they won the election.

After he asked for her views, Heaven told the politician she believed drill music was normalising violence and children’s exposure to it was getting worse.

Sir Keir said: “Let us take that away. There’s quite strong feeling. The sense is, from you, something’s got to be done about this.”

When told by another teenager she felt unsafe walking home, he said: “It’s tragic you feel that and we have a responsibility to address that.”

He repeated former prime minister Tony Blair’s pledge to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” and said the party wanted to put more police on the front line and in neighbourhoods.

Fourteen-year-old Nasrullah Ahmed told the Labour leader he wanted to be a doctor, but asked how he would be encouraged to stay and work in the UK.

Sir Keir said he hoped junior doctors strikes were resolved before an election and said: “Under the last Labour government we didn’t have these kind of strikes because we treated the NHS with respect and negotiated properly.”

He also pledged to “clean up politics”, adding: “I think trust is at an all time low.”