I’m newcomer to the UK, please explain what is the issue K. Starmer x J. Corbyn

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Sorry if it is a dumb question but what is the issue behind the 2019 elections and Starmer support to Corbyn? Why is it still a big deal?

Starmer stood with Corbyn at the time he was leader. At the time of the election for the leadership, he said he would continue to support the manifesto. It was believed that he was to the 'left' in the party. Once he got the leadership, he appeared to suffer from amnesia and reneged on his promises. He began to purge the party of the left, and eventually expelled Corbyn from the party.

Thanks @cupcaske123 but why now he has to say that he supported Corbyn but didn’t think he would win? Is this to justify changing his mind supporting the manifesto?
Was the manifesto controversial?

I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly. The manifesto was controversial in the sense that many believed it was pie in the sky. It was long and promised a lot of things such as free internet. At the time of the 2019 election, he did support Corbyn.

I just dont understand why is such a big deal that he supported his party at 2019 but now he has to say that he did but he did not think his party would win

It's not a big deal. It's the Daily Mail's way of saying 'ooh look out Starmer is a horrible socialist' without coming right out and saying it.

This

😂😂

Starmer, a consumate politician, lacks any real convictions and will say whatever is necessary for power. His whole leadership strategy rests on putting a huge gulf between him and the last Labour leader, given Corbyn lost the last election and Starmer doesn't want to lose this one.

While this Janus-like approach has served Starmer well in general, it does leave him open to accusations of hypocrisy: positions he once held when they were useful for his career under Corbyn's leadership he now has to disavow. That's the crux of it. Everyone knows he's a slippery snake (just like Sunak), and the journalists I think enjoy trying to skewer him.

Something has obviously been said that I'm not aware of. He supported both Corbyn and the manifesto. Johnson won in a landslide due to his 'get Brexit done' rhetoric. Many blamed Starmer due to his stance on Brexit. I don't know what he's been saying about the election.

It's a big deal because the Tories don't have much else to pin on him.

It's normal for someone riding in politics to throw support behind their party leader, whether they truly support them 100% or not. Otherwise you end up with factions and splits. Nobody wants a divided party.

Hardly! Nice try though.

I can think of somebody else who said, much more recently, I've changed my mind, and he doesn't seem to be doing too badly in the polls.

His current policies seem to be about better borders and wealth generation.

Which is pretty good for a right wing party. Not so much an alleged left wing one.

Be very careful if you think the Labour are still Left Wing. They aren't.

It’s a big deal because Corbyn represents the ‘loony left’ and we are allergic to that in this country. Starmer was up his arse at that time and people want reassurance that he’s not the same.

As it is, the only ‘reassurance’ we have is that although he is clearly not part of the ‘loony left’, Starmer is a flip-flopping lightweight with absolutely no political or moral convictions whatsoever.

I'm amazed that his PR people didn't coach him on a better response to questions about Corbyn. They were bound to come up.

All he needed to say was that all political parties contain a breadth of political opinion, that he did have private disagreements with Corbyn and concerns about the way in which the party was being run at the time, but that he felt that it was better to influence from within the party than to walk away. And that he campaigned for a Labour victory, despite his misgivings, because even after his disagreements with Corbyn had been factored in, he still believed passionately that a Labour government would be infinitely better for the country than the disastrous Tory government that we ended up with instead. And he still stands by that.

Corbyn showed us that the country was not ready to support a left wing leadership. Starmer is trying to find a centrist ground to maximise chance of being elected on the grounds that most people would prefer anything to the Tories.

This.

Me too. His response made him look disingenuous to put it mildly...I supported Corbyn because I knew we wouldn't win?!! WTAF?

ha yes this is about it

Yeah, that was a terrible justification. I just couldn't understand why he hadn't rehearsed a better answer.

If only he'd said that. He was flailing, wasn't he?

Is it not also because JC was thrown out for being anti-semite and KS doesn’t want to explain why he didn’t know or didn’t seem to mind this previously?

Starmer's answer was shit but what I'd like to know is why this question is put to Starmer constantly but no one asks the same questions of Sunak who publically supported Johnson for a damn sight longer and more emphatically (BJ also outed from his party for being a shocker). The two scenarios are close enough to be comparable.

Sunak then went on to quit because Johnson was so awful and then, more recently, went on to praise him again when he looked to be re-entering the Tory campaign team.

Is it because there is already so much to criticise Sunak about, that no on bothers to ask him about the same hypocrisy?

It's the Tory apologists trying to stop you looking at the myriad of times the Tories have changed their mind, acted unlawfully, acted against the ethos of public servants. Ooo look here at Kier Starmer who supported the Labour leader in an election campaign (nothing they haven't done before obviously!), don't look at the latest Tory scandal! The latest in a very long list of scandals.

This is a very good point and one that needs to be made.