Carol Vorderman today told Labour that Sir Keir Starmer ‘will never be voted in as Prime Minister again’ as she urged the party to change leader in order to retain power.
Speaking at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, the ex-Countdown star said she felt ‘very let down’ by the party’s first year in office in a fiery attack on the Government.
Appearing at a fringe event on Monday, the 64-year-old lashed out at Sir Keir’s administration over freebies, winter fuel cuts and an ongoing donations row.
The outspoken broadcaster also said it was a ‘disgrace’ that the now-resigned Lord Mandelson had been appointed by the PM as Britain’s ambassador to the US.
She went on to shower praise on Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, amid feverish speculation he is plotting a leadership challenge against Sir Keir.
But, later on Monday, Mr Burnham appeared to be in full retreat as he said Sir Keir was the right person to be PM when he spoke at a separate event.
He offered his backing to Sir Keir despite having previously fuelled claims he was poised to rival the premier.
Prior to the last general election, Vorderman was a frequent critic of the previous Tory government and spearheaded a ‘tactical voting’ campaign to help oust the Conservatives.
She left her weekly show on BBC Radio Wales in 2023 after breaking BBC guidelines with vocal attacks against the then-Tory government on social media.
In her appearance at Labour’s conference, Vorderman branded the Tories ‘scum’ and ‘the most corrupted party that we could ever have’.
But she suggested Labour had been similarly rocked by ‘sleaze’ rows that dogged the Tories, since Sir Keir entered Downing Street.
‘This is my prediction: Keir Starmer will never be voted in as Prime Minister again,’ Vorderman told the event.
‘It will have to be a change of leader if you want another Labour government, or he’ll lose.’
The Welsh presenter said her message to the Government was to ‘get your PR (public relations) better’.
She added that, while she didn’t have a problem ‘in principle’ with Labour introducing means-testing for winter fuel payments, the now-reversed cuts had been too severe.
‘I’m coming up to pensionable age. I don’t have a problem because I would not need that,’ she said of the handout, which is worth up to £300 per household.
‘So I didn’t have a problem with means-testing it in principle, but it was the level.
‘Who on earth thought that was a good idea to go from 12 million pensioners receiving it to 1.5 million? Who thought that was a good idea? It’s nuts.’
Vorderman went on to criticise Labour over ‘freebiegate’, which saw top ministers – including Sir Keir – accept lavish gifts from party donor Lord Alli.
She also referred to a row over undeclared donations to campaign group Labour Together when it was led by the PM’s now chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
‘I thought the Tories were scum, I thought they were the most corrupted party that we could ever have,’ Vorderman added.
‘And I wanted Labour to come in and for there to be none of these stories. But we’ve had minister after minister; the Mandelson thing, it was a disgrace.’
The slump in both Labour’s poll ratings and Sir Keir’s approval among voters has fuelled speculation about his leadership and a potential challenge by Mr Burnham.
‘I love Andy Burnham,’ Vorderman said of the Greater Manchester mayor, also quipping that she could one day stand to be an MP but ‘only if Andy asked me’.
But – despite leaving the door open for a future leadership bid – Mr Burnham seemed to be backing away on Monday following a backlash against his posturing.
Asked at a conference fringe event if he thought Sir Keir was the right man to be Labour leader and PM, Mr Burnham replied: ‘Yes.’
He had earlier insisted ‘you would have to wrench’ him out of the North West to return to Westminster.
‘There’s no ability for me to launch,’ Mr Burnham said, as he sought to address claims he was being ‘disloyal’ and ‘completely out for myself’.
Mr Burnham hit back at criticism of his recent headline-grabbing proposals for changes to tax and spending.
‘I reject entirely this idea that I’m sort of hopeless and I’ve no idea about how to make it add up,’ he said.
‘I’m doing it every day in Greater Manchester. No-one ever says Greater Manchester is run in a financially imprudent way.’
It came after ministers appeared to liken his economic agenda, which includes a call for some £40billion earmarked for housing to be spent exclusively on council homes, to the policies of former Tory PM Liz Truss.
In a broadcast round ahead of her conference speech in Liverpool, Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested Mr Burnham was at risk of echoing the former Tory premier, whose mini-budget panicked the markets and sent the pound tumbling.
‘If he’s saying… anybody that says you can just borrow more, I do think that risks going the way of Liz Truss,’ the Chancellor told LBC.
Mr Burnham, a former New Labour minister and ex-MP for Leigh, insisted his proposals had been misreported.
He had pitched the policies, which include reform of land value taxation and council tax, in a series of interviews with national media during which he refused to rule out a tilt at Sir Keir’s job.
Speaking on Monday, he sought to address ‘the sense I’m completely out for myself, disloyal’, citing behind-the-scenes work he says he has been doing to help progress the Government’s Hillsborough legislation.
‘It sticks in my throat somewhat for people who have just arrived on the scene to be throwing some of the comments at me that they have done,’ he said.
‘I did everything that I possibly could (have) to make this conference a success.’
He said he had instead been seeking to provoke a wider debate within Labour about the party’s direction ahead of local elections next May, as the Government faces a sustained lag behind Reform UK in the polls.
