00:00On the pitch of Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, Keir Starmer launched the Labour
00:04general election campaign. He later claimed 30% of Kent's vote, but just two and a bit
00:10years later, Starmer is hanging up his hat as Labour leader. His relationship with the
00:15county, however, isn't explained simply in the numbers.
00:19Kent is very important to us. It's very important to me. I grew up on the Surrey-Kent border.
00:24I know this area very, very well.
00:26There was a very surreal day, the entire world's media descending on the dual stadiums. I was
00:32kind of struck by how slick and polished he was, given that one of his big problems as
00:38Prime Minister was the media frenzy, not necessarily coming across as human in interviews. When
00:45I spoke to him, he was very personable, seemed to understand Kent a lot.
00:50He'd been laying the groundwork for a while, speaking in Chatham with Medway leader Vince
00:55Maple.
00:58I think Keir's done a very good job as Prime Minister. If you'd said to me in December
01:032019 that a leader of the Labour party would bring us a Labour government, three Labour MPs
01:10for Medway and a Labour council, if you said that to me in December 2019, I'd go, that's
01:15pretty unlikely. Keir Starmer has delivered that.
01:18But not all relationships remain so positive as Rosie Duffield quit the party after just
01:23a few months of it being in power.
01:25I'm not on to Keir Starmer's leadership I'm afraid.
01:27The next challenge, perhaps as expected for the Garden of England, was from Kent's farmers.
01:33Manifesto claims to increase inheritance tax brought about pushback.
01:37So Labour announced changes a couple of weeks ago. How do you feel about those?
01:41Well, very, very sad. It's an absolute detriment to the countryside. I want to hand it over to
01:47my son. We just don't, you know, we don't make any money out of the place and that's the
01:52whole purpose of being here really.
01:54Later, the new tax announcements were relaxed but it didn't stop Starmer from adopting a
01:59new, rather uncomplimentary nickname.
02:01Starmer the Farmer Harmer.
02:03Edenbridge Bonfire Society had hoped to make Starmer their newest kindling, a sentiment
02:08likely shared by Kent County Council's new reform leadership after he slammed them in
02:13the Commons.
02:14My sympathy is with the people of Kent whose lives are being disrupted by the staggering
02:19incompetence of reform.
02:22However, the real stress test came as more questions flooded in on Peter Mandelton's
02:27relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, with Mandelton's appointment happening with Starmer's oversight.
02:33It became the final straw in many Labour MPs' faith in the leader that included Gillingham's
02:40Neshaba Khan.
02:41Unfortunately, I do not think that the Prime Minister's position is recoverable.
02:47Starmer kept his job but later, after a landslide victory by England's
02:51incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the Makersfield by-election, he quit, watched on by Oli
02:57and I.
02:58On Monday, stormed from the north, Randy Burnham will be sworn in.
03:02We wonder whether he will have as much of a journey here as his predecessor, Chloe Brewster
03:08for KMTV.
03:08We wonder if he can easily heard like a mummy as well as one of the two generations, who
03:09could find that he was able to find the way too early.
03:09I think he will be able to ensure that the end of the day of this time, which is the
03:09only
03:09part of the day of this situation, and if there are not – it can be a relaybaugh
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