Exclusive: Sir Keir Starmer reveals his children have been at school and calls for consensus to get pupils back in classroom
Sir Keir Starmer's children have been able to go to school during the coronavirus pandemic, the Labour leader has disclosed as he urges Boris Johnson to work with parents and unions to build a consensus for primaries to reopen in England next month.
The Labour leader said in an interview today that he knew the importance of keeping children in education because his son and daughter had both attended local state schools in his north London constituency during the lockdown as Sir Keir's wife Victoria is a key worker in the National Health Service.
Reopening schools is seen as a vital step in getting Britons back to work after the nine week coronavirus lockdown which has forced the economy into reverse.
But Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, is facing a struggle against a combination of over 50 councils and teaching unions which are refusing to agree to a partial reopening of English primary schools in the week starting June 1.
Sir Keir said that his children - an 11 year old son and nine year old daughter who he has never named publicly - are already at local schools in Camden because his wife Victoria has 'key worker' status because she works in the National Health Service.
Speaking to the Telegraph's Chopper's Politics podcast, Sir Keir said: "Our children have been in school throughout [the coronavirus crisis] and it's a reminder that this perception that schools are shut at the moment and the question of whether we open them is wrong.
"They're open at the moment, teachers, staff are on the frontline, every day. The question is, can we increase the numbers of children going back into school, and I want that to happen as soon as it can. But of course it's got to be safe."
Sir Keir added: "The task of the Prime Minister is to build consensus, to give people confidence. Most of the polling I've seen ... show that parents are about 50/50, they're genuinely worried... Rather than accentuating the differences here, the Prime Minister should pull a task force together, and say 'right, we are going to lead from the front'.
"If we can get a consensus we will give people confidence because what people need more than anything at the moment is confidence.
"If the Prime Minister said 'I'll set up a task force of teaching unions, parents, local authorities and government - everybody else who needs to be around the table - to put your shoulder to the wheel, let's get on with this' - I would certainly support that."
While not overtly backing the National Education Union which has set five tests that must be met before any return - covering lower Covid-19 cases, a national plan for social distancing, better access to testing, protocols for outbreaks and protection for vulnerable staff are satisfied - Sir Keir described them as "perfectly reasonable ... tests that can be met".
On Friday, the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) published the evidence it used to advise ministers on reopening schools.
The papers show increasing concern about the educational, social and developmental harm to children from being kept away from school.
However, last night the UK's largest union, the National Education Union, said it had not changed its position that it is unsafe for children to return to the classroom next month.
'Leave vs Remain is over'
Labour will not take the UK back into the European Union if it wins the next general election, Sir Keir declares as he says that the Brexit issue is now settled.
And the Labour leader draws a line under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and his apparent questioning of British institutions and symbols by saying his party should not be "shy" about being seen as "patriotic".
But Sir Keir gives warning that the estimated £300billion cost of paying for the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic needs to be borne by middle and higher earners in tax rises.
In an interview with this weekend's edition of Chopper's Politics podcast, which is free to listen to on the Telegraph's website, Sir Keir, a Remainer who campaigned for a 'softer' Brexit when Mr Corbyn was leader, makes clear that he wants to move on from the row which split the country for the past three and a half years.
Admitting Labour's decision to fudge its response to the Brexit referendum in part helped to drive the party to the 80-seat defeat to Boris Johnson's Tory party in December's election, Sir Keir says the "Leave/Remain argument is over".
Sir Keir says: "We've left the EU, and therefore, the Leave/Remain argument is over and the only argument now is what sort of a deal we have with the EU and what sort of deals we have with the rest of the world."
He adds: "It's very important for the Labour Party to be clear that whatever position we and others may have taken in the last three and a half, four years, that divide between leave and remain is now over."
Sir Keir went further saying that if he leads Labour to victory at the next general election, expected in 2024, he would not try to take the UK back into the European Union, telling the podcast: "I don't think there's a case for rejoining the EU and I'm certainly not making that case."
Proud to be patriotic and not preaching to the converted
In a clear break from the recent history of the Labour party which saw questions over Mr Corbyn's republican views, Sir Keir - who became leader on April 4 - says he wants the party to be proud to be patriotic.
He says: "I'm proud that we're patriotic, I don't think we should be shy about it, I think it is something we should be very proud of and I think the fact thousands and thousands of activists give up their free time to try and improve our country is a real reflection of just how patriotic, they are."
Sir Keir says that he would not refuse to attend a state banquet given in honour of Donald Trump, as Mr Corbyn did during the US President's visit to the UK in April last year, saying: "I've never shied away from these events, I've attended them when I was Director of Public Prosecutions, no doubt I'll attend them as leader of the Labour Party."
In another break from the Corbyn past, Sir Keir makes clear he is determined to put the party's anti-Semitism controversies behind it, saying: "I don't want a Labour Party that's just got an effective mechanism for dealing with anti-semitism. I want a Labour party that hasn't got anti-semitism in it."
Sir Keir has so far been judged to have performed well in this three encounters with Mr Johnson at the dispatch box during Prime Minister's Questions and he admits that the deathly quiet House of Commons chamber - deserted due to MPs' social distancing during the Covid-19 crisis - is helping him as he had expected there to be "a lot of Tories trying to put you off your pace".
Unlike Mr Corbyn who was criticised for rarely stepping outside his ideological comfort zone, Sir Keir wants his policies and ideas to be challenged, and so is inviting non-Labour activists to his 'Call Keir' events which is currently organising virtually twice every Thursday until he can travel physically around the country.
He says: "I am keen to make absolutely clear that the Labour Party wants to appeal very broadly across the whole population ... it's very, very important to be clear about reaching out, wanting to reach all sections of society.
"I actually want people who are not Labour voters and I want them to challenge me, be frank with me and be blunt with me. So my preference is to speak to those people around the country rather than having rallies of Labour members and supporters."
That includes trying to win readers of the Telegraph round to his position. He says: "What I am keen to do is to make absolutely clear that the Labour party wants to appeal very broadly across the whole population and that's why I'd be very interested in doing things with the Telegraph."
Scrutinising the Government's coronavirus strategy
Sir Keir is trying to be constructive in his dealings with the Tory Government during the coronavirus crisis. He says: "On lockdown - and the conditions of lockdown - we've been absolutely full square with the Government" but criticises the Government for being too slow on testing and personal protection for NHS and care work.
This week he scored a victory when he forced Mr Johnson to agree to his idea to scrap a £400 surcharge on migrant healthcare workers, 24 hours after Mr Johnson told him at PMQs that he would do no such thing.
Now he has another idea for the PM to resolve the impasse with unions and some councils over whether schools in England should reopen on June 1: set up a task force comprising parents, unions, councils and officials to agree a mutually acceptable return date.
Sir Keir, 57, has not been personally affected by the row as his two children are still at school because his wife Victoria is a key worker.
He says: "Our children have been in school throughout [the coronavirus crisis] and it's a reminder that this perception that schools are shut at the moment and the question of whether we open them is wrong.
"They're open at the moment, teachers, staff are on the frontline, every day. The question is, can we increase the numbers of children going back into school, and I want that to happen as soon as it can. But of course it's got to be safe."
I ask him if this means he cannot understand the pressures for working parents who are also trying to teach their children at home.
"I think it is very difficult," he says. "Everybody is struggling with homeschooling, and of course homeschooling is much easier if you've got space and lots of devices in your house, much more difficult if you're in overcrowded accommodation, and you haven't got devices so I completely understand that."
Sir Keir has been treading a fine line by not condemning the National Education Union which have been resisting the June 1 return unless five tests covering lower Covid-19 cases, a national plan for social distancing, better access to testing, protocols for outbreaks and protection for vulnerable staff are satisfied, describing them as "perfectly reasonable ... tests that can be met".
Who will carry the cost?
On how Britons will eventually have to stump up to pay for the measures costing hundreds of billions of pounds taken during the crisis, Sir Keir agrees with the PM on one thing - there will be no return to the austerity policies of the Tory governments (circa 2010 to 2018). But Sir Keir goes further than Mr Johnson, and admits that higher earners will have to shoulder a larger tax burden when the time comes.
He says: "We don't yet know what the damage to the economy is. And I don't think it's therefore sensible and possible say, in which bracket will the percentage of tax be 'x', 'y' or 'z', but the broad principle that, you know, those with the broader shoulders should contribute more is one that I think the vast majority of people subscribe to. It has got to be balanced, it's got to be reasonable but it's that principle has been the backbone of economic thinking for quite some time."
Questions have been raised about why Sir Keir is happier to be known as plain "Keir Starmer" in the daily Hansard reports of House of Commons proceedings, and not use his knighthood, which he was awarded for services to law and criminal justice after he stood down as head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2014.
He says: "I'm really proud about that ... but I just don't particularly like titles. It was ingrained in the staff to call the Director of Public Prosecutions 'director'. So I said 'Don't call me director, call me Keir'. So this is not to do with the Knighthood, it is that 'Keir' has served me very very well in my life, and I much prefer it."
