SIR Keir Starmer lavished Jeremy Corbyn’s manifestos with heaps of praise despite using them to slur the Tories’ election plans.
The Labour chief, then campaigning for ex-leader Mr Corbyn, said in a social media video that the party’s pledges at the last election showed “decency and dignity”.
But he dramatically U-turned on the documents he had previously backed – blasting that a “Corbyn-style” manifesto meant “none of it is costed”.
The major flip-flop came as Starmer was criticised for an attack on members of his own party, with some pointing out Sir Keir had backed two Corbyn manifestos as his “right-hand man”.
Starmer said his own plan, to be launched on Thursday, was “fully costed” and would not include any income tax, VAT or national insurance increases.
He also fumed that the Tories were proposing a “Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto where anything you want can go in it, none of it is costed.”
But in a Facebook video filmed at Euston station hours before Corbyn unveiled the plans in 2019, Starmer declared: “I think in this election, what I’m hearing is people really want change.
“They want to end the inequality that they see, and they just want decency and dignity, and that’s what this manifesto is about.
“Real change, ambitious change and ambition to meet the needs.
“Please have a read of it and vote Labour.” A second video clip from the Labour leadership election in 2020 also resurfaced, showing Sir Keir describing Corbyn’s 2017 manifesto as a “foundational document”.
He said at the time: “We should treat the 2017 manifesto as our foundational document, the radicalism and the hope that that inspired across the country was real.
“Anybody who knocked on a door in that election knows it was real.
“So we have to hang on to that as we go forward”.
Ex-Tory cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke blasted: “This from the guy who backed two ‘actual’ Corbyn manifestos.
“The sheer nerve is unbelievable.”
And former Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: “Says Starmer who was Corbyn’s right-hand man when he wrote both his manifestos.
“Such chutzpah”.
Even the Momentum group of left-wing campaigners slammed the party leader for the jibe, writing: “Labour’s 2019 manifesto was fully costed.
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“Keir should know, he stood on it as a member of the shadow cabinet.
“How about stopping attacking your own side during an election?”
Labour was asked to comment.
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