The former shadow transport minister Sam Tarry, who was sacked after giving broadcast interviews from a picket line, has said he “absolutely” still thinks Sir Keir Starmer is the best person to lead the country – but that Labour needs to show solidarity with striking workers. The Labour MP for Ilford South, who joined the picket line at Paddington station in London on Saturday, told the PA news agency: “I believe Keir Starmer is absolutely still the best person to become prime minister and I’ll be campaigning every day for a Labour government.” But Tarry, who was sacked from the shadow cabinet on Wednesday after joining a picket line, said that the Labour party needed a “fundamental recalibration” of its relationship with the trade union movement and needed to show it was on their side.
Speaking on the Aslef picket line outside Paddington station, he said: “We should never have been in a situation where we had an edict that you can’t join a picket line. This is the Labour party, the clue is in the name. We are the party founded by the trade unions.” He added that the link between the union movement and the Labour party was “indivisible” and “part of the same fabric”. Starmer, who previously banned frontbenchers from joining picket lines, said Tarry had been sacked for conducting a media round without any prior warning. Tarry also appeared alongside the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn at a rally for striking BT workers on Friday.
Tarry said on Friday: “This isn’t about me or Keir Starmer. This is about the Labour party demonstrating it’s on the side of ordinary British workers in this country. “I think it’s a fundamental mistake to ban Labour MPs from being on picket lines. It shouldn’t happen.” He said he had spoken to several MPs across the country who were backing the workers. Tarry ruled out any potential Labour leadership bid on Saturday and said he was “focused on being the MP for Ilford South” and “doing the best job” he could for the people of Ilford South.