Sir Keir Starmer refuses to say if he is politically closer to Tony Blair or Jeremy Corbyn

Sir Keir Starmer refused to say whether he is politically closer to Tony Blair or Jeremy Corbyn today as he said Labour must learn lessons from its last four general election defeats and not just 2019. 

The Labour leadership frontrunner is viewed as a moderate candidate in the race to replace Mr Corbyn. 

But he would not be drawn on where he falls on the Labour political spectrum as he insisted he does not ‘need somebody else’s name or badge’ to succeed. 

Meanwhile, he said that some of his friends are Tories and that he judges people ‘by what they say and who they are’ rather than by their political affiliation.

He also vowed to rid Labour of its various warring factions to create a unified party capable of beating the Conservatives. 

The comments from Sir Keir come after a poll suggested he is in second place in the race for the Labour top job with Corbynite candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey currently on course for a narrow victory.

Sir Keir was asked during a BBC interview where he would put himself on the party’s political spectrum if Mr Blair was at one end and Mr Corbyn was at the other. 

But he said: ‘I want to lead a Labour Party that is trusted enough to bring about fundamental change. 

‘I don’t need somebody else’s name or badge in order to do that, and what we forget in all this is that all the leaders in the Labour Party, all the teams of leaders, they have to do it for the circumstances as they are. 

‘So, our job is to put forward that radical and relevant programme for the next decade and the decade after.’ 

Sir Keir stressed that one of the key tasks for the next Labour leader will be to unite the party which has been rocked by divisions and constant infighting since Mr Corbyn took charge in 2015. 

The shadow Brexit secretary said: ‘We need to unify the party and I think I can do that. 

‘We spent far too much time fighting ourselves and not fighting the Tories. Factions have been there in the Labour Party – they’ve got to go.’

Meanwhile, he insisted that in order to chart a path back to power the party needed to look beyond its devastating defeat last month and also examine its three previous failures at the ballot box. 

He said: ‘The other thing that we have to bear in mind is there are many reasons we just lost the election in 2019. 

‘But we’ve lost four. We’ve lost four elections in a row. And therefore, identifying a particular thing in this election isn’t going to help.’ 

Sir Keir also rejected the tribal Labour loyalty of some of his more hardline colleagues as he said he does have friends who are Tories. 

‘Yes, of course I do,’ he said. ‘I have friends and colleagues I’ve done a lot of cross-party working [with]. 

Rebecca Long-Bailey, pictured in London on January 14, is the joint frontrunner along with Sir Keir in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn

‘On some issues there is a lot of cross party working, and rightly so. So I judge people by what they say and who they are, rather than which party they’re in.’ 

A Survation survey of party members for the LabourList website published last night showed Sir Keir is in second place on 37 per cent, trailing Ms Long-Bailey on 42 per cent. 

The numbers suggested Ms Long-Bailey would win the top job in the second round after second preference votes have been counted with 51 per cent of the vote to Sir Keir’s 49 per cent.

The winner of the Labour leadership contest will be announced at a special event held on April 4.