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LBC caller's bizarre Keir Starmer comparison
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Jun 28, 2025
James O'Brien's callers share their views on Keir Starmer after the PM announced a major climbdown over proposed welfare reforms, as the government attempts to prevent a rebellion. 0:00 - Caller Robin accuses Keir Starmer of ‘flip-flopping' while in opposition, but James is unconvinced. 04:23 - Caller Coral sees 'humanity and compromise' in the PM's 'U-turn'. 07:31 - Caller Michael’s bizarre analogy involves comparing Keir Starmer to a character from Friends. 09:49 - Caller John has something positive to say about Donald Trump... Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jamesobrien #keirstarmer #labour #ukpolitics #uknews #donaldtrump #friendstvshow #chandler #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
I've watched Keir Starmer's rise
0:02
I used to be a member of the Labour Party and I left when he was elected leader
0:06
So, just to be clear, you are in precisely the category that I was very rudely castigating a moment ago
0:13
You're someone who never liked him, didn't like him then and doesn't like him now. Well, I didn't like his actions
0:21
That's fine. But you haven't changed as a consequence of anything that's happened in the last six months
0:26
No, if anything, I did contemplate rejoining the Labour Party, but then after I've seen this, there's no chance
0:35
I think Sam has got to go. I think he was known as Captain Flip-Flop when he was in the opposition
0:41
He's just weak. I don't think he has any political anchor. He's got himself surrounded by people who were talentless
0:51
And I think what he should have done, I think he should have held fast and seen this through
0:57
and it should have threatened the rebel MPs with removing the whip
1:02
So you like the policy as it stood? You like the cuts to the disability and sickness benefits
1:09
Obviously, there's going to be people who would genuinely need this disability money
1:15
There's got to be, but there's always going to be people who are pulling the wool over the eyes
1:19
But the bill wasn't really designed to identify them. Well, that's the problem
1:24
So then you've got to go to the people who come up with the bill and could they implement it without the people who genuinely need it
1:33
So that's part of the problem. Yeah, but you wanted the bill to stay in place
1:37
even though you're describing the people who put it together as being talentless and useless
1:42
Well, if you go... There's a bit of a contradiction there. I mean, so they've done something really rubbish
1:48
but you're really cross that they're not carrying on with it. I'm not saying the bill was totally rubbish
1:54
Oh, sorry. Just the people who put it together are totally rubbish
1:58
No, the idea was right, James. What's the idea? What's the idea? Because this is what eludes me at the moment
2:04
Well, cutting welfare spending has to, you know what I mean, it can't keep growing and growing and growing
2:08
There has to be some kind of control on welfare spending. Even if the, I mean, the old age pension is going to carry on growing and growing and growing
2:18
No one ever talks about reducing that. Well, that should be an option
2:22
You mentioned earlier about me. Social security as well. It means test testing
2:26
Yes, I mean, I'd love to see the politician who tried that. So you recognise the need to somehow cut the spending
2:33
and you didn't really care, if we're honest, about how it was done
2:37
because now you're cross that it's not going to be done anyway. And all of the people who've been queuing up to describe to me
2:43
the fears they had for the future and the damage this would do to their already, in many ways, compromised lives
2:51
I mean, that's the bit that's confusing me about your position. You like the bill, yes or no
3:00
Well, I would like to have welfare spending under control. See, that's the problem, isn't it
3:05
Is that you don actually know whether you welcome the climb down or not because neither of us know whether or not the bill was going to do the things that you think needs to be done and which he said was going to be done Why did you resign from the Labour Party just out of interest
3:19
If you're in favour of welfare cuts? Why did I... Resign from the Labour Party if you're in favour of welfare cuts
3:26
I just thought when you have a leader who flip-flops as much as Keyes Dahmer does
3:32
I could... What were the big flip-flops in opposition? The big flip-flops in opposition is he wouldn't really take a stand on anything
3:40
You know what I mean? That's not a flip-flop, is it? He said Jeremy Corbyn was a friend, then he said he wasn't really a friend
3:45
And I could see that coming down the line. There it is. I could just see the people..
3:50
So can you name a flip-flop? A flip or a flop? A flop or a flip
3:55
Because, I mean, you've now gone from saying that he flip-flops all the time to saying he doesn't actually take a stand that he could flip-flop from
4:02
There's a lot of flip-flops there, James. Well, give me one. No, I'm saying you're saying a lot of flip-flops
4:08
Well, yeah, I'm flopping and flipping and flipping and flopping because you can't name one
4:12
If you're going to make a decision, see it through. You can keep saying that
4:16
I've got no idea why you resigned from the Labour Party except that you're upset that he's not friends with Jeremy Corbyn anymore
4:21
which is fine. Well, I didn't catch your last speaker, but I would like to say that I'm impressed
4:29
Because I was on the waiting for you to talk to you. Oh, let's see. Sorry, I do apologise. that I think that he is good
4:38
And I was also, I stayed a Labour Party member. I'm still a Labour Party member
4:44
But I didn't, I really did like Jeremy Corbyn and I thought he treated Jeremy Corbyn badly
4:50
And I also thought he's been very bad on Palestine. But I actually have seen some humanity
4:56
and some compromise with his U-turns. So I'm much happier. Conciliatory. Yes
5:04
It's a nice word, isn't it? Well, no, OK. I know he's bowed to pressure, but he didn't bow to pressure
5:09
There was plenty of pressure from the Labour Party before he was elected, and he could have been a strong man
5:14
If he believed in being a strong man, he could be a strong man now. You've done it. You've absolutely cut to the heart of it, haven't you
5:20
There is a stupidity in insisting that you will never change your mind
5:24
You know, you turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning. but there is something equally bad
5:30
about what the last chat was describing as flip-flopping and there are examples of flip-flopping
5:36
since he became leader of the Labour Party there aren't many from when he was in opposition
5:41
but the pendulum swings and the pivot point, Coral, is going to be in a different place
5:47
for almost all of us, isn't it? So you're still seeing this as collegiate and conciliatory
5:53
or with a little bit of strong arm other people, like the last caller, will be thinking
5:59
how do I ever know if he's going to stick to his guns? Because he keeps backtracking, he keeps flip-flopping, he keeps U-turning
6:08
I think you've got to be a kind of, a bit of a fanatic
6:14
I think the people who, and I've got, unfortunately, I got friends on either side of that divide and I spent my life feeling I in bad faith because I still stayed in the Labour Party because all my friends you know the ones who gone off the
6:31
BBC they've got you know they're left wingers and they see it
6:37
very clearly and I also can see it and actually agree with them about the
6:41
policy I would much prefer us to be a proper socialist and yet
6:48
Yes, and yet, I mean, if we were to marry together the first two calls of the day
6:53
you've got someone who accepts or someone who endorses the absolute inevitability of trying to cut the welfare bill
6:59
and somebody who, if you'd allow me to say, perhaps somewhat idealistically
7:05
thinks that we can meet those costs indefinitely and infinitely. Before you go, shall I try to make you laugh
7:13
Yes, go on. What do you call a Frenchman wearing sandals? You have to tell me
7:23
Philippe Flop. I'm afraid a groan emerged. Well, that was not a groan
7:29
That was a hearty chuckle, Coral. I am going to lead with an ogy first from the Friends TV show
7:36
Carry on. Friends TV show. Yeah, yeah. Good. I love that. Yeah, at one point in the show
7:43
Chandler gets promoted from his office into a management position. Hang on, just everyone pull up a chair
7:50
This is going to be good. Go on. And he gets quite upset along the way
7:56
because all of his office mates that he used to be really buddy-buddy with
8:00
suddenly see him as the boss. Ah, yes. And he can't figure out why he still wants to be their mate
8:08
Yeah. He wants to continue being the Bantasaurus Rex and they're no longer..
8:12
His audience is no longer an audience of equals. It's all changed
8:17
Yeah. and it's only when Phoebe points out like you know it goes into the reasons as to why
8:23
you can't be their friend anymore because you have to make all of these decisions
8:27
and stuff that he sort of accepts his position and it kind of feels that that's what
8:34
Keir Starmer is trying to do at the moment he's trying I do very much agree with your previous caller
8:40
it really feels like he's got the best interests of the country at heart
8:44
and want to believe he's doing the best he can but it feels like he's also trying to be Mr Popular
8:50
But do you think he is? And he wants to be the guy that everyone loves. I don't know about that
8:55
because then he wouldn't have made these very, very unpopular pronouncements. I mean, by dint of the climb down
9:02
you could claim he was trying too hard to be popular but it doesn't quite work on a Chandler Bing level
9:07
because he wouldn't have done the thing in the first place. Chandler Bing got promoted
9:11
Keir Starmer announced these incredibly unpopular. He formulated and announced and championed
9:16
these two incredibly unpopular policies and then he climbed down on them so who is he trying to be
9:21
friends with and in both of those moments um so i think it's more of he's trying to be like um
9:30
oh sorry i lost my train of thought don worry i got a question for you where does joe what was joey doing and i guess the answer to that is who Joey in British politics Who is Joey Tribbiani in the Labour Cabinet
9:45
This is what we all need to know. Find Joey Tribbiani. Put him on the telly. I wanted to try and mix what I see a connection
9:52
between the winter fuel and PIP payments. Go on. Are you going to do so using Dad's Army as the basis
10:00
No, that would be awesome. so my connection that i think is is that keir starmer is so long term looking he can't look
10:11
short term he can't look at what is happening right now so you can look at for example an
10:16
increasing pensioner population you can look at what happens to pensions when they get older
10:21
they get frail they get disabled they get more likely to claim more pip so you can look at the
10:27
scenario basically where he's going right we have a decreasing working population we have a
10:32
population that has voted consistently for anti-immigration i could use a really good
10:36
example if you had time james for japan is a perfect example right now where they have a
10:41
low immigration levels they have a decreasing birth rate to the point now where their population
10:48
is dropping and we're heading to that point kia starmer's basically gone right long term
10:52
we need to basically get the birth rate up how do you do that when you've got people like farage
10:57
standing in the wings shouting about immigration all the time. And ignoring the demographic
11:04
change to pensioners or the falling birth rate. Ignoring all of that
11:08
It's primary schools shutting in this city at the moment. Literally shutting because there's no kids
11:11
to go to them. And I'm going to say something, James, that you're not going to believe. I'm going to
11:16
say something positive about Trump. Go on. The last person who tried to say something positive about Trump
11:21
I actually told to shut up on the radio, which was probably quite unprofessional of me
11:25
But luckily, I said it in a very bantery way. So let's see if that happens again. Go on
11:29
So what's the main thing that Trump has? He has a spokesperson that is there 24-7 talking to the press, 24-7
11:37
Oh, yeah. OK. Yeah, well, that's the office of the United States president
11:40
It's not just him. But that notion of communication, that window on his world
11:45
even though they're lying through their teeth, the principle is a good one to have somebody there
11:50
James, for example, you've got Labour MPs who come up on LBC. You can't tell you where Bridges
11:54
but you've got Labour MPs who come on the other days who are amazing. And it's the single problem that the Labour Party has at the moment
12:00
is comms, is communication. It's explaining to the general public that if we do not have the money to spend on pensioners and on PIP
12:09
we're going to have to prioritise who the money goes to. And for a lot of Labour MPs..
12:13
Yeah, but why don't you just take it off the billionaires? Because that's the problem
12:18
You're trying to explain it to the general population. I'm showing you what the general population is primed to say
12:23
if they come from the left you say why don't you just take it off the billionaires and if they come from the right you say well they're all scroungers anyway so what are you worried about why aren't
12:30
you getting more of them why aren't you taking more you're not taking enough they're all scroungers i know someone who's got a motability car and these he's only got um i i don't know he's only
12:38
got an ingrown toenail so they're all scroungers they're all scroungers so you see the problem but
12:42
you're right they need to try but it doesn't matter how big the mountain is you've got to try to blooming climb it and they haven't even got their crampons on thank you john
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