‘Labour did not ask!’ Andrew Marr tears apart Yvette Cooper over Starmer’s Covid stance

Andrew Marr grills Yvette Cooper over Labour’s Covid position

Andrew Marr questioned how Labour can criticise the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic as the party failed to put any pressure on them during a crucial vote on travel quarantine. The BBC presenter added that Sir Keir’s official policy remains unclear other than a statement of “we need to be very careful”.

Mr Marr said: “You talk about the first wave Yvette Cooper, Labour did not ask for more restrictions then.

“During the summer when so many people were coming in and out of the country and so many new variants were arriving in the country, Labour’s position so far as I can tell was exactly the same as the Government’s position.

“And then in February, the party was calling for mandatory isolation in hotels for people coming in from anywhere into the country.

“When it came to the crucial moment for that vote, you put no pressure on them whatsoever.

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Andrew Marr grilled the Labour MP (Image: BBC)

Andrew Marr questioned Keir Starmer’s position (Image: BBC)

“If I am looking for the Labour Party’s official policy right now all I find is Keir Starmer saying ‘we need to be very careful’.”

But, the Labour backbencher was quick to hit back.

Ms Cooper replied: “We should have had proper testing, quarantine and stronger restrictions, and I was calling for that.”

This week former Labour duo Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell discussed how Keir Starmer could revive the party’s fortunes on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Mr Blair insisted the Labour Party had few chances of securing a victory at the polls after the “far-left captured the leadership”.

He issued a dire warning about the future of the Labour Party in the aftermath of the disastrous May election results under Sir Keir Starmer.

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The former Prime Minister said chances of general election victory rests on Sir Keir’s ability to veer the leadership away from Jeremy Corbyn’s “far-left” strategies.

Mr Blair said: “If you go back, in the 120 years of Labour’s history there are three occasions when the far-left have got near to the Labour Party.

“1935, 1983, 2019. All of them have been the worse defeats we have ever had.

“Only in the last defeat in 2019, did the far-left actually capture the leadership of the party itself.

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Keir Starmer has been the Labour Party’s leader since April 2020 (Image: GETTY)

“You can agree with Jeremy Corbyn or don’t agree with him but it was a dramatic change in the type of Labour Party that had been put forward.

“When you do something like that, you cannot just rediscover easily.”

Campbell, hosting for Good Morning Britain, asked: “What can Keir do to recover?”

The former Labour Prime Minister replied: “You have got to spell out what is different.”