Keir Starmer squirms in humiliating LBC phone-in as caller demands 'yes or no' answer

Sir Keir Starmer was left squirming on an LBC phone-in over whether he would have served in Jeremy Corbyn's cabinet if he won the 2019 general election.

Graham from Bushley asked the Labour leader for a "simple yes or no answer" to the question.

Sir Keir eventually suggested he would have served in the veteran left-winger's Cabinet after repeated questioning.

The caller said: "You were happy to serve in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet from 2016.

"Without the waffle about believing Labour wouldn't win the 2019 election, just give me a simple yes or no answer.

"Had Labour won the election in 2017 or 2019 would you have been happy to serve in the cabinet under prime minister Corbyn?"

Sir Keir replied: "Well I didn't think we'd win either of those, there's no getting away from that."

Graham pressed him: "Just a simple yes or no. You were part of the shadow cabinet, would you have been happy to serve in his cabinet if he won?"

Sir Keir said: "It's a pure hypothetical, it didn't cross my mind because I didn't think we'd win."

Host Nick Ferrari then jumped in and said: "You campaigned for him because you thought he wouldn't win?"

The Labour leader replied: "I campaigned for Labour because I've campaigned for Labour in every election and I wanted good colleagues to be returned."

Mr Ferrari said: "Graham's is a fair point. Had they won would you have accepted a post in Mr Corbyn's cabinet?"

Sir Keir repeated that he did not believe the Labour Party would win under Mr Corbyn's leadership.

Mr Ferrari pressed him: "You're a very bright man, you know that's not answering the question Sir Keir. Had they been successful would you have taken a cabinet post?"

Sir Keir replied: "It's a hypothetical, I didn't think we would win. I did take a post, I served for three years in the shadow Brexit role because I thought that was a very important issue for our country."

The LBC host asked again: "Would you have followed him into government?"

The Labour leader said: "Look it's hypothetical. If we'd got it over the line there were important things I thought needed to be done from the front bench.

"To continue the Brexit work, to make it absolutely clear the Labour Party never deviated from our position on NATO and to do the necessary work on antisemitism. But as we went into that 2019 election I genuinely did not think Labour would win."