Kate Hoey blames Keir Starmer for her decision to leave Labour - 'Treated us like pariahs!'

FORMER Labour Minister Kate Hoey has launched an explosive attack on Keir Starmer - claiming he treated those who voted to leave the EU as “pariahs”.

In an interview with GB News, Baroness Hoey said Mr Starmer was the prime reason she decided to quit her party.

Speaking exclusively to Gloria De Piero, she said: “I left the Labour Party very simply because Keir Starmer took the Labour Party to a position, under Jeremy Corbyn, where they were reneging on the manifesto promises, that they would implement whatever people voted for.

“Once they called for a second referendum on Brexit, I felt very unhappy and disillusioned with the Labour Party. I was unhappy with the way that they were switching their views, and the way they were ignoring people who genuinely thought that Labour was going to support them in their vote.

“I just thought, ‘That's it’, and I left. But, I think the Labour Party left me really rather than, you know, me leaving them.”

When asked if she’d still rather see Mr Starmer in Number 10 than Rishi Sunak, the former Cabinet Minister refused to say she would.

She said: “I'm not enamoured with Keir Starmer, I have to be honest. Because I saw the way he operated when he was the Shadow Europe Minister. I mean, he, more than anyone else in the Labour Party, I believe, was responsible for us changing our position, for us ignoring the seventeen and a half million people who voted to leave, and for treating anyone who voted leave as some kind of pariah.

Labour leader Keir Starmer.
House of Commons

“I remember a group of us trying to see Keir, and he never wanted to really talk to us about it. I think he had decided and knew that he was a fervent European, so I just don't believe that he's changed.”

During her interview with GB News, Ms Hoey also said she thought the Labour Party should allow former leader Jeremy Corbyn back into the party.

Kate Hoey spoke exclusively to GB News' Gloria De Piero
Image: GB News

Ms Hoey - who served as Minister for Sport for two years - also spoke out about her concerns over the fact some trans-athletes were now being allowed to compete against females in certain sports.

She said: “I'm very, very keen for young people to get involved in sport, to compete, and to enjoy all of that that sport gives you. It is not just winning, but it is about how to lose properly and all of those things.

“And there is absolutely no doubt about it in my mind, and I think in most people's minds, that someone who is trans cannot ever really compete on a fair basis with a woman. And therefore, I think sport is going to have to look at if they want to have a separate category.

“I don't want to stop trans people from being able to participate, but it is just not fair. You look at some of the ridiculous things that have happened in swimming in America, and some of the things that are happening here. And I just think people have to use a bit of common sense and realise that it's not ever going to be fair, and that it's going to put off an awful lot of people from getting involved in sport.

“hat doesn't mean to say that you're anti trans, and I just think it's so sad now that we can't have a proper discussion and debate on sensible terms on this without people being absolutely pilloried and being accused of being anti trans when they are not.