A former Labour voter who Sir Keir Starmer said made him realise the party had it ‘wrong on immigration’ has said she ‘doesn’t believe a word the Prime Minister says’.
Earlier this week Sir Keir told his party’s conference he twigged ‘the Left had got it wrong on illegal immigration’ when he visited the town of Oldham ten years ago and spoke to a pensioner.
The woman, Joyce Todd, 79, who has owned her £130,000 terraced home in Oldham since 1979, was introduced to the then newly elected MP when he visited the town during the 2015 by-election and she was working with the local council.
In his speech to delegates in Liverpool earlier this week, the PM said: ‘Soon after I became an MP, I went to Oldham for a by-election up there.
‘I was taken to a street to meet a woman, who I was told had strong views on immigration.
‘I knocked on the door, she invited me in, we had a cup of tea, and a Rich Tea biscuit and then as we sat there, she got her photo album out and showed me pictures.
‘They were of her at the wedding at her Asian neighbour, she was proud that she was her friend.
‘Now, I’m not the most patient of people as anyone in my family will tell you but I started thinking “What is going on here?”
‘Then we finally got to it, and she told me how some men from Eastern Europe had recently moved into her street.
‘They sat on her wall, didn’t put their rubbish out at the right time and spat on the ground.
‘To her, that broke the little but important rules of her street. She didn’t like it.
‘Then I realised what was really happening and, Conference, what was really happening, was that she an ordinary working-class woman from Oldham.
‘A Labour voter felt that she had to prove to a Labour politician that she wasn’t racist before she could even bring up the issues in her community.
‘I carried that with me through all the bad years conference, we are a party that patronised working people and that is why we changed the party.’
Mrs Joyce said the PM who was then MP for Holborn and St Pancras, challenged her on her views at the time.
In an interview following his speech she said: ‘I don’t believe a word (Keir Starmer) says, I’m sorry. I was brought up Labour.
‘My parents were Labour. But I will never vote for them again.
‘I’m not racist. I live in a street that, to be honest, has more Asian people than white people.
‘There are some Eastern Europeans, but the majority are Asian.
‘We’re respected, we’re “Auntie” and “Uncle” to the kids round here, we go to all the celebrations.
‘Does that make us racist?’
Mrs Todd’s commitment to her local community is well known among Oldham residents.
In 2009 she was awarded the Special Lifetime Achiever’s award at a glittering ceremony at the town’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The citation said she was ‘an ambassador for her community right from the start’.
At the time – the former journalist – said: ‘People come to me for help and I never turn them, away – I don’t believe in that.’
