Obama huddles with UK Labour leader Keir Starmer for strategy session

Former president finds ally in centre-left Starmer after spurning Corbyn

Former President Barack Obama at the COP26 summit (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Former President Barack Obama is throwing his full support behind the centre-left leadership of Sir Keir Starmer in the Labour Party, and reportedly huddled with the opposition leader via video call last week for a strategy session.

The Observer reported on Sunday that Mr Obama met with David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, in person in Washington while Mr Starmer joined the conversation remotely. The three discussed winning election strategies for centre-left candidates, according to Mr Lammy.

The discussions centred around “how progressive parties win and how Labour can fight back in an environment where our opponents have 10-to-one more funds than us”, Mr Lammy told the newspaper.

“Obviously, in the United States there is Fox News, but we have similar challenges in the UK. Getting our message across and learning collectively is really important. We are heartened by President Biden winning in the United States and Olaf Scholz in Germany. We have got to learn the lessons, and Keir is determined that we learn winning ways,” said the shadow foreign secretary.

Mr Obama’s relationship with Mr Starmer is a total about-face from his strained ties with Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader and now independent MP who he dismissed as too far-left during a 2016 interview.

The US president attacked Labour during his final month in office, claiming that Mr Corbyn was far to the left of Sen Bernie Sanders, the champion of much of the US progressive movement, and claimed that the Democratic Party would not follow Labour’s lead because it was “grounded in reality”.

Mr Obama’s own efforts to aid President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020 was well-documented. The former president endorsed his former VP shortly after Mr Sanders conceded his bid for the Democratic nomination, and campaigned alongside Mr Biden as he had for Hillary Clinton in the final days of the 2016 election.

His efforts in 2020 saw much greater success than they did four years before, when Mr Obama’s massive late-season rally in battleground Pennsylvania alongside Bruce Springsteen failed to push Ms Clinton over the edge in the state, which she lost to Donald Trump by less than one percent of the vote.

Mr Lammy added of Mr Obama in a comment to the Observer: “He knows that things can change very much with politics. The themes and challenges are common. Progressive parties have found themselves on the back foot in a populist age, and we have to learn from each other and from colleagues who are winning.”

Mr Obama is currently focused on the construction of his presidential library near former first lady Michelle Obama’s childhood home on the south side of Chicago; the sprawling complex broke ground in August, and does not yet have a target completion date.